China's Hong Kong: The Politics of a Global City

by Tim Summers

Overview

In 1997, Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China under the “one country, two systems” framework. In this new edition, Tim Summers brings his analysis of the politics of Hong Kong fully up to date and discusses the ramifications for the city of the mass demonstrations of 2019–20 and the city’s intensifying confrontational politics that have culminated in China’s new national security law for Hong Kong.

In the process, Hong Kong has lost the sweet spot it occupied for four decades in a world of intensifying economic globalization and decent US–China relations, all the more so after Covid-19. Instead it finds itself at the frontline of US–China strategic rivalry. Summers explores how the city’s future will be shaped by the interaction of these global tensions with Hong Kong’s polarized local politics and its relationship with Beijing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788213332
Publisher:	Agenda Publishing
Publication date:	11/19/2020
Series:	Business with China
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.15(w) x 9.20(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tim Summers is an assistant professor in the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a senior consulting fellow on the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House, based in Hong Kong. He was a British diplomat for 13 years, including five years in Hong Kong (1996–2001).

Table of Contents

Preface to the second edition vii

Note on transliteration ix

Glossary and abbreviations xi

Map xiii

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 A year of protest 129

7 Hong Kong's future 155

Timeline: Key dates in Hong Kong's political history 171

Notes 173

Index 191

Editorial Reviews

This readable overview of twenty-first-century Hong Kong by Summers, a former British diplomat and resident commentator in the city, succinctly reviews the major events of globalization that have impacted the city, shaped by its changing relations with China and the rest of the world.

Choice

Summers's work provides a ground-breaking re-assessment of modern Hong Kong, from an observer with decades of experience in the region.

Biblio-Fiend

A comprehensive guide for those interested in a changing Hong Kong and the wider set of political and economic developments in China and the rest of the world… convincingly spells out the situation in Hong Kong from the handover to mid-2020 and attempts to go beyond the dominant “Beijing vis-à-vis Hong Kong” framework in Hong Kong studies.

China Perspectives

Hong Kong remains in the news because it is that part of China where the contest of identities and ideologies takes place most visibly, especially when the people of Hong Kong feel their much treasured post-1997 autonomy is threatened. Summers explains the local, national and global context of this contest and why many people feel pulled in different directions.

Christine Loh