HONG KONG: BORDER WITH CHINA WILL NOT BE DISMANTLED AFTER HANDOVER

(20 Jun 1997) English/Nat

Even though Hong Kong is handed back to China on June 30, the border between the two will not be dismantled.

A mesh fence snakes across the countryside for 20 miles separating Hong Kong from the mainland city of Shenzhen.

And for the Territory's police it will be business as usual after the change of sovereignty - 24 hours a day, seven days a week - they'll be on the lookout for people trying to cross into Hong Kong illegally.

The Union Jack flag may be coming down, and sovereignty changing hands, but for these Hong Kong border patrol soldiers the job is the same.

From July 1 - both sides of the brown river that separates Hong Kong from Shenzhen will be China.

But the mesh fence will remain firmly intact, with Hong Kong continuing to be a restricted region for most Chinese.

Hong Kong police will continue to patrol the mile-deep, 20-mile long "Frontier Closed Area."

Stiff police presence, a newly fine-tuned border following the Shenzhen River more precisely, and tighter immigration laws obstruct any Chinese with aspirations of living on the island.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"They have to get through two defences instead of one which makes it harder for them to come over. And of course immigration laws would have changed making it hard for them to stay in the territory legally and to get a living. So there's very little choice of coming over, unless they want to come over for crime."
SUPERCAPTION: Charles Harold Parker, Royal Hong Kong Police

Three per cent of the 130,000 trucks that cross into Hong Kong daily are searched.

Last year 510 disabled illegals, unable to climb fences were caught strapped beneath trucks.

So some of the police spend their days strapped beneath trucks, lying prone on the border with a mirror.

Shenzhen - the gleaming boomtown where China dabbles in capitalism - has been a prime departure point for illegal immigrants seeking better jobs and lives in Hong Kong.

While some make it through - 23,180 people were caught - 5,146 of those at the border.

Across the frontier People's Armed Police patrol with AK-47's over their shoulders.

They're not enemies, but they are not quite friends either.

Hong Kong police have little day-to-day contact with their mainland counterparts except waves, nods and a daily traffic conference.

At night the work doesn't stop.

This is when most people attempt to make the crossing.

They swim across the river, cut into the mesh fence with hacksaws and meat cleavers, and scale it with grappling hooks and fashion ladders from nearby trees.

If they can escape border guards and thermal imagers they head for the hills.

If not they are debriefed, fed, fingerprinted and driven back to Shenzhen by bus.

The same faces often reappear within days.

Except for Chinese troops crossing between their garrison in Hong Kong and headquarters in Shenzhen, no one expects much to change come July 1.

The illegals are sure to keep coming.

As one police officer said, it's a job that goes on forever.

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