For Hong Kong in the 80s, environmental protection was still an unpopular issue. Guan Zhong said as early as 2,700 years ago that Cang Liao knows etiquette. Only when the society enters abundance, people's needs from the most basic material satisfaction, into a higher realm of spiritual needs, begin to pursue a more beautiful environment, a healthier life, more leisure and entertainment, will pay more and more attention to environmental protection.

The Asian Tigers, including Hong Kong, have been taking off economically since the 70s, but there are still some gaps between them and developed countries in Europe and the United States. It was only in the mid-to-late 90s that Hong Kong people's environmental awareness really began to rise.

However, this time, it is a world-renowned non-governmental environmental charity that has raised objections to the eastward expansion of the Tin Shui Wai Electronics Industrial Park. A short distance to the east of Tin Shui Wai is the Mi Po Nature Reserve, a 380-hectare wetland reserve that protects large areas of tidal flat mangrove resources on the Hong Kong side of the Hong Kong side of the Deep Bay Boundary River estuary.

Every winter, millions of gulls, ducks, herons and wading birds from North China, Mongolia and Siberia migrate south to Southeast Asia and Australasia for the winter. The wetlands around Mai Po and Deep Bay are one of the most important supply stations for migratory birds on their southward wintering routes, with more than 100,000 birds and waders stopping here every year for repair.

Therefore, since 1976, Mai Po has been listed by the Hong Kong government as a site with special natural scientific research value for protection. Subsequently, in 1984, the Mai Po Nature Reserve was officially established and managed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Li Xuan is also one of the important donors of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and when the Mai Po Nature Reserve was established, his Haichuan Foundation donated 10 million Hong Kong dollars as start-up capital.

Of course, WWF's attention is not only due to its fact that it has now grown to become the world's largest and most influential independent environmental non-governmental environmental NGO, but also because of its current chairman. In 1981, the Foundation invited the Duke of Edinburgh, who is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, to become its new chairman.

The WWF Hong Kong branch was originally established to raise funds for the Foundation's giant panda conservation programme in cooperation with the Chinese government. It was only after the foundation took over the operation of the Mipu Nature Reserve that its role gradually increased to provide environmental awareness and education in Hong Kong.

Because of China's special national conditions, the country's non-official environmental protection agencies have little influence, and the official environmental protection bureau has long been regarded as a rubber stamp by local governments in order to serve the overall GDP situation. But the situation is very different elsewhere, and these environmental NGOs are definitely kraft candy organizations that make the scalps of multinational companies tingle. Once you get pestered by them, you will have to spend a lot of extra money to deal with the unrelenting harassment of these agencies.

Although in Hong Kong in the 80s, the voice of environmental protection groups was still very limited, Li Xuan did not need to let himself and the Eastern Bloc be this villain. He is already the richest man in the world, and he should maintain a positive image of being kind and benevolent, rather than becoming a negative example of being rich and unkind.

What's more, the biggest demand of the Eastern Group is to force the Hong Kong government to increase support for the electronics industry, and the expansion of the Tin Shui Wai Industrial Zone is only one aspect of it. The reason why the Hong Kong government chose to expand eastward in its plan is entirely because the east is a flat land with the lowest development cost.

For the Eastern Group, as long as the Hong Kong government implements the actions to support the development of the electronics industry, it does not matter whether to expand the Tin Shui Wai Industrial Zone. The New Territories is so large that it is entirely possible to choose a suitable place to build a new electronics industrial park.

And as long as the Hong Kong government is willing to make this determination, even if there is no suitable site, it can still ask for land from the sea through land reclamation. Since 1840, when Hong Kong came under British rule, 6.5% of Hong Kong's land has been reclaimed from the sea.

A large number of Hong Kong's best areas, including Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and the Central area north of Des Voeux Road, as well as Tsim Sha Tsui East and Kwun Tong Industrial Area in Kowloon, have all been reclaimed from the sea. Completed in 1985, the Tai Po Industrial Estate in the eastern part of Hong Kong Island was the first to land reclamation to acquire industrial land. Compared with the high price of land in Hong Kong, the cost of land development for mountain reclamation is also completely within the affordability of the Hong Kong government.

So after figuring out his boss's thoughts, He Guoyuan soon started a series of operations with long sleeves and good dancing. Looking at the list of directors and directors of the World Wide Fund for Nature (Hong Kong), dozens of names on it are all well-informed figures in Hong Kong's business, academic, political and legal circles.

As the 97 deadline approached, the Hong Kong government's governance of Hong Kong was constantly adjusted, and the British began to gradually withdraw from it, and instead supported a group of pro-British Chinese elites, in a vain attempt to continue Britain's influence in Hong Kong in the future. Therefore, the British, who had been under colonial rule in Hong Kong for 150 years, suddenly became the vanguard of the implementation of democracy.

Since the beginning of the year, Hong Kong Governor Wilson has been making every effort to implement the so-called "88 direct election", hoping to use a fait accompli to determine Hong Kong's future political system. By giving Hong Kong people the right to vote freely, they can also give the agents selected by the Hong Kong government a veneer of public opinion, hoping that they will be able to control Hong Kong's politics on behalf of Britain after the handover.

It is a pity that under the strong opposition of the mainland side, His Excellency the Governor's election road map was directly stillborn. But the Hong Kong government's aim of co-opting Hong Kong's elites to maintain its influence at the end of its reign has been laid bare in the open. However, this is also an opportunity for Li Xuan, because the Oriental Group has been rooted in Hong Kong for nearly a decade, and a large number of Hong Kong social elites have already gathered around it. How capital controls society, the Eastern Bloc has made a vivid demonstration.

The bosses of small companies and large factories need to rely on the industrial chain of the Eastern Bloc to undertake orders; experts and scholars need the direct or indirect funds provided by the Eastern Bloc to conduct research projects; and politicians need the support of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of votes directly or indirectly related to the Oriental Bloc. Therefore, whoever is the enemy of the Eastern Bloc will smash the jobs of these people and will be attacked with the most resolute backlash.

This is also the fundamental reason why Li Xuan has never shown any pro-British tendencies over the years, but the Hong Kong government's attitude towards him has become more and more polite. At the beginning, he also needed to make a ****** to maximize his interests in the Sino-British dispute through neutrality. But now Li Xuan and the Oriental Group have become more and more confident and self-contained, and standing up can make the Hong Kong government dare not underestimate it. (To be continued.) )