There has been intense interest in the proposals to implement Article 23, both in Hong Kong and abroad. This book will be valuable to anyone who has followed or participated in that debate or has an interest in the delicate balance between civil liberties and national security. The book will be particularly useful for legislators, policy-makers, lawyers, journalists, historians, teachers, and students, especially in the fields of law and the social sciences. The statutory Appendix will assist teachers and students to draw comparisons between existing law and the government's proposals. In 2003 more than 500,000 people marched in Hong Kong against the National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill, which would have prohibited treason, sedition, secession, and subversion against the national government of China and included new mechanisms for proscribing political organisations. This edited collection analyses that legislation, particularly the implications for civil liberties and the one country two systems model. Although the massive protest compelled the Hong Kong government to withdraw the Bill from the legislature in 2003, it will likely propose similar legislation in the future because Hong Kong has a constitutional obligation to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law. The book provides detailed and balanced commentary on the Bill, explains why certain proposals proved so controversial, and offers concrete recommendations on how to improve the proposals before the next legislative exercise. Fu Hualing is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, Faculty of Law, of the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include social legal studies, human rights and criminology. He has an LLB from Southwestern University of Law and Politics (China), an MA from the University of Toronto (Canada) and a doctorial degree from Osgoode Hall Law School (Canada). Carole J. Petersen is an Associate Professor and a former Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, Faculty of Law, of the University of Hong Kong. She has been teaching law in Hong Kong since 1989, specializing in constitutional law, human rights, and anti-discrimination law. She has a BA from the University of Chicago, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a Post-graduate Diploma in the Law of the People’s Republic of China from the University of Hong Kong. Simon N. M. Young is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, Faculty of Law, of the University of Hong Kong. He teaches criminal law, evidence and legal aspects of white collar crime. Previously, he was Counsel in the Crown Law Office-Criminal, Ministry of the Attorney General for Ontario, in Toronto, Canada. He obtained his LLB from the University of Toronto and his LLM from Cambridge University. “This collection of essays on the saga of Hong Kong’s efforts to address the mandate of Article 23 in the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and related matters is likely to be an extremely useful resource for a number of audiences. These include those directly engaged with the issue of legislation and policymaking in Hong Kong in both public institutions and in the community; those who have an interest in the development of Hong Kong’s political and legal system and its relationship to the system of Mainland China; and those with an interest in national security and anti-terrorism legislation more generally, from a comparative perspective. The overall quality and range of the contributions is strong. The topic itself is a current and important one, and the collection is an important contribution to the field.” — Andrew Byrnes, Professor of Law, Australian National University “The debate on legislation to ensure the sovereignty and security of the PRC against threats from Hong Kong was a turning point in the Special Administrative Region’s political history. It showed that while some Hong Kong residents may have reservations about democracy, human rights are cherished by almost all. It also showed that people can influence policy even without formal institutions of democracy. The authors of this book played a leading role in the debate, clarifying the legal issues, which was critical to an informed debate.” — Yash Ghai, Sir Y.K. Pao Professor of Public Law, University of Hong Kong

A gripping history of China's deteriorating relationship with Hong Kong, and its implications for the rest of the world. For 150 years as a British colony, Hong Kong was a beacon of prosperity where people, money, and technology flowed freely, and residents enjoyed many civil liberties. In preparation for handing the territory over to China in 1997, Deng Xiaoping promised that it would remain highly autonomous for fifty years. An international treaty established a Special Administrative Region (SAR) with a far freer political system than that of Communist China—one with its own currency and government administration, a common-law legal system, and freedoms of press, speech, and religion. But as the halfway mark of the SAR’s lifespan approaches in 2022, it is clear that China has not kept its word. Universal suffrage and free elections have not been instituted, harassment and brutality have become normalized, and activists are being jailed en masse. To make matters worse, a national security law that further crimps Hong Kong’s freedoms has recently been decreed in Beijing. This tragic backslide has dire worldwide implications—as China continues to expand its global influence, Hong Kong serves as a chilling preview of how dissenters could be treated in regions that fall under the emerging superpower’s control. Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World tells the complete story of how a city once famed for protests so peaceful that toddlers joined grandparents in millions-strong rallies became a place where police have fired more than 10,000 rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets and even live ammunition at their neighbors, while pro-government hooligans attack demonstrators in the streets. A Hong Kong resident from 1992 to 2021, author Mark L. Clifford has witnessed this transformation firsthand. As a celebrated publisher and journalist, he has unrivaled access to the full range of the city’s society, from student protestors and political prisoners to aristocrats and senior government officials. A powerful and dramatic mix of history and on-the-ground reporting, this book is the definitive account of one of the most important geopolitical standoffs of our time.

Examines a range of contemporary social and cultural conflicts in East Asia and the echoes they have throughout the world.

A survey of the state of human freedom around the world investigates such crucial indicators as the status of civil and political liberties and provides individual country reports.

This book reviews the political development of Hong Kong before and after 1997, in particular the evolution of state-society relations in the last two decades, to analyze the slow development of democracy and governance in Hong Kong after 1997. This book is a most comprehensive analysis of the multi-faceted changes in Hong Kong in the last 20 years. The scope of changes analyzed included state functions and institutions, political changes such as party development and development of the Legislative Council, and social changes such as social movements, civil liberties, etc. It helps the reader understand the crisis of governance of Hong Kong after 1997, and the difficulty of democratic development in Hong Kong over the years. The book covers: changing state institutions in Hong Kong in the last few decades; party development in Hong Kong; the changing role and function of the legislature in Hong Kong; the evolution of social movement and movement organizational forms; media freedom, civil liberties, and the role of civil society; and theoretical discussions concerning governance problems and state-society relations in Hong Kong. Special emphasis is placed on how these changes brought about a new state-society relation, which in turn brought governance difficulties after 1997.

Rarely do acts of civil disobedience come in such grand fashion as Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. The two protests came in regions and jurisdictions that many have underestimated as regards furthering notions of political speech, democratisation, and testing the limits of authority. This book breaks down these two movements and explores their complex legal and political significance. The collection brings together some of Asia’s, and especially Taiwan and Hong Kong’s, most prolific writers, many of whom are internationally recognised experts in their respective fields, to address the legal and political significance of both movements, including the complex questions they posed as regards democracy, rule of law, authority, and freedom of speech. Given that occupational type protests have become a prominent method for protesters to make their cases to both citizens and governments, exploring the legalities of these significant protests and establishing best practices will be important to future movements, wherever they may transpire. With this in mind, the book does not stop at implications for Taiwan and Hong Kong, but talks about its subject matter from a comparative, international perspective.

In the tumultuous negotiations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984, the United Kingdom willingly signed over Hong Kong's reigns to the People's Republic of China, but with the presupposition that the PRC would faithfully implement the principle of 'one country, two systems' for the following fifty years. Yet since the handover in 1997, the PRC has failed to allow Hong Kong a higher degree of autonomy. 'One Country, Two Systems' in Crisis elucidates how China's intervention has curtailed Hong Kong's civil liberties; how freedom of speech is at the mercy of the government; and how deception has turned the 'Pearl of the Orient' into the rubber stamp of the Chinese Communist Party.

Freedom in the World contains both comparative ratings and written narratives and is now the standard reference work for measuring the progress and decline in political rights and civil liberties on a global basis.

How can one of the world's most free-wheeling cities transition from a vibrant global center of culture and finance into a subject of authoritarian control?As Beijing's anxious interference has grown, the "one country, two systems" model China promised Hong Kong has slowly drained away in the yearssince the 1997 handover. As "one country" seemed set to gobble up "two systems," the people of Hong Kong riveted the world's attention in 2019 by defiantly demanding the autonomy, rule of law and basic freedoms they were promised. In 2020, the new National Security Law imposed by Beijing aimed to snuff out such resistance. Will the Hong Kong so deeply held in the people's identity and the world's imagination be lost? Professor Michael Davis, who has taught human rights and constitutional law in this city for over three decades, and has been one of its closest observers, takes us on this constitutional journey.

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.