China's Hong Kong: The Politics of a Global City PDF
Preview China's Hong Kong: The Politics of a Global City
Business with China Series Editor: Kerry Brown The titles in this series explore the complex relationship between Chinese society and China’s global economic role. Exploring a wide range of issues – from the legal system to class, from investment to finance – the series challenges the view of a country enclosed in on itself, and shows how the decisions made by Chinese consumers, the economic and polit- ical choices made by its government, and the fiscal policies followed by its bankers are impacting on the rest of the world. Published China’s Hong Kong Tim Summers The Future of UK–China Relations Kerry Brown CHINA’S HONG KONG The Politics of a Global City Tim Summers To Lucy and George © Tim Summers 2019 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved. First published in 2019 by Agenda Publishing Agenda Publishing Limited The Core Bath Lane Newcastle Helix Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 5TF www.agendapub.com ISBN 978-1-78821-068-3 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-78821-069-0 (paperback) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by JS Typesetting Ltd, Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan Printed and bound in the UK by TJ International Contents Note on transliteration vii Glossary and abbreviations ix Map xi Introduction 1 1. Hong Kong before 1997 11 2. Implementing the handover settlement 33 3. Hong Kong’s economy, globalization and the rise of China 55 4. The Occupy movement and its aftermath 77 5. International dimensions of the Hong Kong SAR 103 6. Hong Kong’s future 127 Afterword 147 Timeline: Key dates in Hong Kong’s political history 155 Notes 157 Index 167 v Note on transliteration This book makes occasional use of Chinese characters. I use the tradi- tional full-form version of Chinese characters dominant in Hong Kong rather than the short form in use in mainland China. As is common practice in writing about China, I follow these in the text with the stand- ard Putonghua (or Mandarin Chinese) romanization, known most com- monly as pinyin. However on a couple of occasions where the phrases are more particular to Hong Kong or to Cantonese I have chosen to use instead the Yale romanization for Cantonese (without diacritical marks which indicate intonation), to reflect the way that these characters are spoken by most people in Hong Kong. These usages are marked [Cant.]. Many people in Hong Kong have adopted non-Chinese names for use in English, or write their names using initials with the surname sec- ond (C. K. Wong or Lucy Chan, for example), and I tend to follow that practice when talking about people from Hong Kong. However, when referring to Chinese officials such as Xi Jinping, I follow the practice elsewhere in China that the surname comes first, including in English. For non-Cantonese Chinese names I use the contemporary pinyin spelling, with the exception of historical figures and references, such as Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), where I adopt the more common versions in English. The book uses US dollars to refer to economic indicators. Where these are converted from source data in Hong Kong dollars this is done at a rate of US$1 = HK$7.80, reflecting the peg put in place in 1983. Amounts in renminbi or RMB (China’s currency) have been converted using aver- age exchange rates for the year in question. Tables in Chapter 3 outline some economic data, in particular gross domestic product (GDP) taken from data published in 2018. In the text most of the references to annual vii China’s Hong Kong rates of growth in GDP are to figures published at the time, rather than to the revised figures using current prices indicated in the tables. I hope that any inconsistency is minimal and does not detract from the key arguments of the book. viii Glossary and abbreviations Basic Law The “mini constitution” promulgated in 1990, which outlines in Chinese law the arrangements for the governance of Hong Kong CCP or CPC Chinese Communist Party or Communist Party of China Chief Executive Head of the Hong Kong SAR and its government Court of Final Appeal (CFA) The highest court in the Hong Kong SAR CPGLO Central People’s Government Liaison Office, the representative office of the central (national-level) authorities in Hong Kong which houses both Communist Party and central govern- ment representatives Executive Council Body which advises the chief executive on policy issues, consisting of political and business figures FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the foreign ministry of the United Kingdom (UK) Joint Declaration Agreement, signed in 1984, between the UK and China on the handover of Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) Hong Kong’s legislative body MFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China ix China’s Hong Kong NPC & NPCSC National People’s Congress, the highest state institution and legislature of the PRC, and NPC Standing Committee “One country, two systems” The principle under which Hong Kong operates as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC PRC People’s Republic of China SAR Special Administrative Region, the status Hong Kong and Macao enjoy in the PRC political system x
The list of books you might like
