Analyses how China's socialist legal principles are incorporated into the Basic Law, and examines the conflicts in the drafting process between maintaining China's control and achieving genuine democracy and autonomy..

Focusing on trade in manufactures, industrial restructuring and economic development and enforced by a rich source of data, this book offers an in-depth examination of the evolution and characteristics of Hong Kong's postwar economy. The book presents an historical and comparative perspective and analyses the symbiotic connection with South China in the light of China's open-door policy since late 1970s, as well providing a thoughtful assessment of its current turning point.

This title was first published in 2000: The Sino-British joint declaration in 1985 had called to the end of British rule in Hong Kong, but the impacts of the agreed introduction of popular election during the transitional period have still not fully emerged. Being granted Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong by China after 1997, Hong Kong people are suddenly exposed to the kind of politics that they were not engaged in before. The transitional politics is further complicated by the fact that the majority of Hong Kong voters supported the democrats, whose political value and orientation differed from that of the Beijing government. In order to comprehend the collective behaviour of the Hong Kong voters, the author first traces the development of the Hong Kong state and put his readers into context of Hong Kong electoral politics. By adopting the cleavage approach in explaining the voters’ choice and the election results since the 1990, the author examines whether the existing institutional arrangements as established by the Basic law is capable of solving the political and electoral conflicts of the days.

Chinese parallel title on jacket romanized as: Hsiang-kang ti cheng chih pien hua chi cheng fu ho fa hsing chih wei chi. Bibliography: p. 449-467.

This book raises interesting questions about the process of democratisation in Hong Kong and asks why democracy has been so long delayed when the standard of living in Hong Kong has become so middle class.