Hong Kong in Transition: One Country, Two Systems

Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia

by Robert F. Ash (Editor), Brian Hook (Editor), Robin Porter (Editor)

This volume offers a perspective on the exceptional constitutional and administrative experiment that has been taking place in Hong Kong, based on a substantial period under Chinese rule. There have been both successes and failures, and a perceptible process of change which is important to document. The book explores major political, economic and legal themes in the life of Hong Kong since the beginning of Chinese rule. It analyses the effects of the Asian financial crisis and Hong Kong's recovery from it, the legitimacy of the new regime - demonstrated in a variety of ways: the response to structural change, the fluctuating fortunes of opposition political parties, and the measurable ups and downs in public support for the government - and the functioning in practice of one country, two systems particularly focusing on issues which have given rise to conflict between two entirely different systems of law. Finally Hong Kong in Transition discusses freedom of speech as a litmus test of one country, two systems, notably as it is represented by the behaviour of and constraints on the media in Hong Kong since the handover in 1997.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 13, 2002

About the author

Robert F. Ash BA MSc (Econ) PhD (London)

Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan at the SOAS China Institute & Founder of the Centre of Taiwan Studies.

Ash's current research focuses on economic and social development in China (food security, rural development, population and migration, employment, consumption and living standards), and agricultural development in post-1949 Taiwan.