Hong Kong: Colonial Legacy, Transformation, and Challenge

Abstract

After 140 years of British rule, which transformed it into a world city of 6 million, Hong Kong embarked upon a fundamental transformation as the 1984 Sino-British agreement mandated the end of British colonialism and the sovereignty retrocession to the People's Republic of China on 1 July 1997. The China factor has ushered in the related processes of decolonization, localization, internationalization, and democratization. It also provoked a rising identity consciousness among the local populace as Chinese. Instead of receiving credit for these potentially positive and creative transformative processes, the China factor has become a disturbing and destabilizing negative force underlining the imperfect transition and the crisis of confidence in Hong Kong. The Sino-British struggle for pre-1997 control and the PRC's intolerance of local democratization and liberalization have intensified the Beijing-Hong Kong-London discord, reducing the prospect for a successful China-Hong Kong reintegration toward 1997 and beyond.