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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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072489
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07248900.021
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 33World NotesHONG KONGSingapore, Here We Come
Since the brutal Chinese crackdown in Tiananmen Square, many
in Hong Kong have concluded that they would rather be anywhere else
when Beijing assumes control of the crown colony in 1997. But
Britain has slammed the door, saying it has no room for the
colony's 3.25 million British subjects. And while the well educated
and well off have found the promise of a warm embrace in other
Western countries, Hong Kong's working class has felt trapped. So
last week, when Singapore announced that it would admit 25,000
white- and blue-collar workers over the next eight years, lines
instantly began to form outside the city-state's visa offices in
downtown Hong Kong.
By opening time Tuesday, an estimated 10,000 people snaked
twice around the block. Some 10,000 applications were handed out
in just 90 minutes, and 6,000 more were mailed the next day;
several recipients then tried to sell the forms on the street.
Singapore is hardly a stranger to the presence of authoritarian
government. Even so, Gordon Seow, Singapore's commissioner in Hong
Kong, said, "Maybe now Beijing will really see how much it has
scared people here."