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Mark O'Neill

Hong Kong Under Chinese Rule
	by Zheng Yongnian and Yew Chiew Ping
	World Scientific Publishing
	3 stars
	Mark O'Neill
This book is a collection of well-researched and well-argued analyses about Hong Kong since the handover written by experts from the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.
It covers the city's economic integration and relations with China, problems of governance, Hong Kong identity and nation-building, the implementation of the minimum wage, and the elections from 2011-2012.
The book's wide-ranging coverage makes it useful for those who seek a broad understanding of how Hong Kong has evolved since 1997, but much of the ground will be familiar to those who live in the SAR and read its newspapers every day.
The recurring theme is how rapid economic integration with the mainland has not been accompanied by political consolidation. As they note: "The question of Hong Kong's political and social integration with China remains the most intractable part of the post-colonial transition for Hong Kong. There is still a great deal of uncertainty as to how this will exactly come about as China is also in a dynamic process of political and social change. Beijing's wish to bring Hong Kong politically and socially closer to China with economic integration has not been realised."
Another theme is the widening gap between the public and those who govern them. "The Hong Kong people seem nowhere near to resolving their lack of public confidence in the government. The cases of policy U-turns demonstrate public distrust of the government's purported aim of serving the Hong Kong people."
In their essay "Democratisation in Hong Kong: A Crisis Brewing for Beijing?", Zheng Yongnian and Tok Sow Keat argue that most Hong Kong people have not rejected a moderate level of intervention by Beijing. Tok is a lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute.
The SAR does not have the issues of nationalism that exist in Taiwan, they observe. Furthermore, the polarisation of society in Taiwan and images of representatives fighting each other on the floor of the legislature do not provide a good model to follow.
"The reality of Hong Kong's dependency on the mainland economy dictates, at a minimum, a working relationship with Beijing. It virtually has no economic card to play vis-à-vis Beijing. Ironically, this pertinent point is conveniently lost on some of Hong Kong's westernised democracy advocates, who have also failed to realise that comprehensive democratisation may not be the answer to Hong Kong's economic and political future," they write.


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Book review: Hong Kong Under Chinese Rule 

Hong Kong Under Chinese Rule

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This book is a collection of well-researched and well-argued analyses about Hong Kong since the handover written by experts from the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.
