960409

China calculates HK handover to last millimetre

HONG KONG: China is calculating its recovery of sovereignty over Hong Kong to the last millimetre -- it has assigned a symbolic height, down to four decimal points, to the flagpole of its future garrison in the territory.

The mast, at a huge army base just over the border where China is grooming its People's Liberation Army (PLA) garrison, flies the Chinese red flag with five golden stars.

The flagpole is 19.9771 metres tall, the pro-Beijing daily Wen Wei Po said on Tuesday.

Why? The numbers symbolise the day when Britain will hand back its Hong Kong colony to China -- July 1, 1997. On that day Chinese troops will replace the British army garrison.

The PLA is building a magnificent, sprawling headquarters for the unit in a project codenamed "976". The number was a reference to the PLA moving into Hong Kong on the eve of the handover, June 30, 1997, the Wen Wei Po said.

The base, which it dubbed "a splendid palace", is located in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen adjacent to Hong Kong.

The base is still being built, the Beijing-controlled paper said in a full-page spread of text and photos designed to charm local people in the run-up to the handover.

Another pro-Beijing paper Ta Kung Pao said China had a plan for Hong Kong and Shenzhen to coordinate their urban planning and industrial development, a move which might mean the two will eventually merge into a huge single entity.-Reuter