In this pioneering study, Sheilah Hamilton shows that, from the earliest days of British rule, the colonial administration introduced harsh legislation to control Chinese watchmen who were employed to protect the fledgling colony's property in the absence of an effective public police force. She examines the growth in different Hong Kong Government departments of what would now be regarded as 'hybrid' police and argues that the existence of such posts within the civil service resulted in greater social control of the local Chinese community at minimal extra expense. Amongst the topics of private security explored are: the impact of the few private security personnel engaged by local Chinese organizations such as the Nam Pak Hong, Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk; the evolution of the District Watch Force from a force engaged in purely local security duties to an arm of the Hong Kong Government involved in non-security matters such as controversial sanitary inspections; and the unique system of village guards and scouts in the New Territories. A particular focus is the early maritime security problems and the internal security forces of Hong Kong's shipping companies. A final chapter compares the situation in Hong Kong and explores the similarities and differences with Shanghai during the period.

Hong Kong, 1918. Tranquil compared to war-torn Europe. But on January 22nd, a running battle through the streets of Wanchai ended with five policemen dead. One of the men came from a small town in Ireland. He, along with a dozen relatives, had sailed out to join the Police Force. Patricia O'Sullivan describes these policemen and the criminals they dealt with, and gives a rare glimpse into the life of working-class Europeans in Hong Kong.

In his autobiography Stanley S.K. Kwan discusses his roots, Hong Kong after the War, Hang Seng Bank, the new China and home and country.

The introduction of elections to district advisory bodies during the early 1980s was expected to improve the public delivery of services. However, as time passed, electoral politics led to party politics, elite fragmentation and political struggles. Politicization and hyper-politicization in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has brought about a fluctuating pattern between administrative recentralization, the Tsang administration’s attempts at decentralization, and the post-2019 administrative recentralization. The purpose of this book is to study the intertwining relationship between district administration and electoral politics. It also examines the political transformation of District Councils after the promulgation of the National Security Law in late June 2020. Written by experts in the field, this book is a good reference source for readers interested in district elections, politics, and administration in Hong Kong.

This book is one of the first to document the challenges and opportunities facing the Hong Kong police force following the reversion of political authority from the UK to China in 1997. Thematically organized and oriented towards those issues of greatest concern to the public, such as police accountability, assaults on police, police deployment, surveillance powers, and policing across borders, it provides a detailed discussion of these and other contemporary issues. The opening chapter sets the work within historical context while the final chapter provides a comparison of policing in Hong Kong with public security in the PRC. The book will be of value to students and researchers working in the area of comparative policing, and comparative criminal justice, as well as police professionals, and policy-makers.

An epic history of the rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to authoritarian rule. Essential reading for anyone wishing to deal with China or to understand the world in which we live. The rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to authoritarian rule are told with unique insight in this new history by Michael Sheridan, drawing on documents from archives in China and the West, interviews with key figures and eyewitness reporting over three decades. The story takes the reader from the earliest days of trade through the Opium Wars of the nineteenth century to the age of globalisation, the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, the fight for democracy on the city's streets and the ultimate victory of the Chinese Communist Party. As the West seeks a new China policy, we learn from private papers how Margaret Thatcher anguished over the fate of Hong Kong, sought secret American briefings on how to deal with Beijing and put her trust in a spymaster who was tormented by his own doubts. The Chinese version of history, so often unheard, emerges from memoirs and documents, many of them entirely new to the foreign reader, which reveal China's negotiating tactics. The voices of Hong Kong people eloquent, smart and bold speak compellingly here at every turn. The Gate to China tells how Hong Kong was the gate to China as it reformed its economy and changed the world, emerging to challenge the West with a new order that raised fundamental questions about freedom, identity, and progress. Told through real human stories and a gripping narrative for the general reader, it is also critical reading for all who study, trade or deal with China.

A close-up look at the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong in the Shadow of China is a reflection on the recent political turmoil in Hong Kong during which the Chinese government insisted on gradual movement toward electoral democracy and hundreds of thousands of protesters occupied major thoroughfares to push for full democracy now. Fueling this struggle is deep public resentment over growing inequality and how the political system—established by China and dominated by the local business community—reinforces the divide been those who have profited immensely and those who struggle for basics such as housing. Richard Bush, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on East Asia Policy Studies, takes us inside the demonstrations and the demands of the demonstrators and then pulls back to critically explore what Hong Kong and China must do to ensure both economic competitiveness and good governance and the implications of Hong Kong developments for United States policy.