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Birds in a Cage: Political Institutions and Civil Society in Hong Kong

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Electoral Politics in Post-1997 Hong Kong

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of Hong Kong’s political system and the development of the city’s civil society. How did Hong Kong become China’s democratic enclave? Why would the notoriously draconian Chinese authoritarian state permit the city to keep a relatively liberal political and media environment? How did the Chinese authoritarian state design the political institutions of Hong Kong in order to defend its political interests? These questions are addressed based on an analysis of the formal political institutions of postcolonial Hong Kong and the city’s political developments in the 1980s and 1990s.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Before Deng took the helm, Beijing had declined Portugal’s requests to return Macao in 1967 and 1974. Mao Zedong also indicated to a former British Prime Minister in 1975 that the time for resolving the Hong Kong issue was not ripe (Vogel 2011, p. 488).

  2. 2.

    In 1985, Hong Kong’s investment in China accounted for 49 % of the country’s total FDI (State Statistical Bureau, the People’s Republic of China 1987, p. 221).

  3. 3.

    The goal of Four Modernizations was to promote the country’s agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense.

  4. 4.

    After the CCP took over China, it decided to adopt a pragmatic policy, known as “long-term planning and full utilization” (changqi dasuan, chongfen liyong),” to deal with Hong Kong (Yep 2009, p. 86). This is because the CCP saw Hong Kong as a British colony had certain strategic value to Beijing. For instance, during the Korean War, when the PRC faced Western trade embargoes, Hong Kong served as an important back door for Beijing to acquire foreign resources (Carroll 2007, p. 142).

  5. 5.

    The British government was reluctant to return Hong Kong to the PRC. Margaret Thatcher once made a proposal that separated sovereignty from administration: while the mainland resumed Hong Kong’s sovereignty, Great Britain would continue to keep the city’s administration. Deng firmly rejected her proposal.

  6. 6.

    The “one country, two systems” principle was originally designed for the reunification with Taiwan.

  7. 7.

    What would happen after 50 years? Deng suggested that there was no need to worry, as the two systems would gradually converge after 50 years (Deng 2004, pp. 18, 38, and 64).

  8. 8.

    Right of abode in Hong Kong has continued to be a contentious issue since the handover, as a number of court cases challenged the constitutionality of the government’s immigration policies.

  9. 9.

    The membership size has expanded twice, from 400 to 800 and then from 800 to 1,200.

  10. 10.

    The figure comes from the HKSAR Electoral Affairs Commission . http://www.elections.gov.hk/legco2012/chi/facts.html. Accessed May 26, 2014.

  11. 11.

    The 2010 political reform produced five new functional constituencies representing the District Councils . Unlike the remaining 30 seats for functional constituencies, these 5 seats have an electorate that encompasses about 93 % of the total voting-age population.

  12. 12.

    Prior to the retrocession, Beijing and the British government had a heated discussion about the scope and franchise of functional constituencies. See, for example, Lo (1994).

  13. 13.

    For a detailed discussion of the problems of functional constituencies, see Young et al. (2004) and Ma and Choy (2003).

  14. 14.

    For a detailed discussion of the composition of the Hong Kong deputies to the NPC, see Young and Cullen (2010).

  15. 15.

    The NPCSC ruled that people born outside Hong Kong do not have the right of abode unless their parents had already become Hong Kong permanent residents at the time of their birth. This interpretation drastically reduced the number of potential right of abode holders.

  16. 16.

    See “The Interpretation by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of Article 7 of Annex I and Article III of Annex II to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China,” adopted at the eighth session of the Standing Committee of the tenth National People’s Congress on April 6, 2004.

  17. 17.

    The population of Hong Kong in 1971 was 3.94 million (Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong 2012).

  18. 18.

    A prevailing view at that time was that “Great Britain is not reliable and the Chinese Communist is not trustworthy” (yingguo bu kekao, zhonggong bu kexin) (Lam 1984, p. 461).

  19. 19.

    There exist other explanations for the colonial government’s unlikely political liberalization since the mid-1980s. Some argue that the British government believed the CCP would fall soon after the June 4 Incident (Lu 2009, p. 70). Others point out that Patten had an incentive to present himself as a freedom fighter for Hong Kong, which would bring him considerable political credential back home after 1997 (Lo 1994, p. 194).

  20. 20.

    Most of the elected opposition legislators gained their office popularly elected through geographical constituencies .

  21. 21.

    For the effects of the “China factor” in pre-transition elections, see Leung (1991, 1996).

  22. 22.

    The largest one took place immediately after Beijing’s brutal crackdown on the student-led prodemocracy movement in 1989.

  23. 23.

    Siu-kai Lau, head of the HKSAR’s official think tank, gave that conservative estimate.

  24. 24.

    For instance, the “Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Issues Relating to the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the Year 2007 and for Forming the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the Year 2008” states: “[S]ince the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong residents have enjoyed democratic rights that they have never had before.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Government and Public Administration, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR

    Stan Hok-Wui Wong

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  1. Stan Hok-Wui Wong
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Wong, S.HW. (2015). Birds in a Cage: Political Institutions and Civil Society in Hong Kong. In: Electoral Politics in Post-1997 Hong Kong. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-387-3_3

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