CART: 0 item(s) $0.00Keeping Democracy at Bay: Hong Kong and the Challenge of Chinese Political Reform
| By Suzanne Pepper |
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. | |||||||||||||||||
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"fascinating"— Spring 2009, The China Reviews
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This thoroughly researched study provides an invaluable account of Hong Kong's political evolution from its founding as a British colony to the present. Exploring the interplay between colonial, capitalist, communist, and democratic forces in shaping Hong Kong's political institutions and culture, Suzanne Pepper offers a fresh perspective on the territory's development and a gripping account of the transition from British to Chinese rule.
The author carries her narrative forward through the lives of significant figures, capturing the personalities and issues central to understanding Hong Kong's political history. Bringing a balanced view to her often contentious subject, she places Hong Kong's current partisan debates between democrats and their opponents within the context of China's ongoing search for a viable political form. The book considers Beijing's increasing intervention in local affairs and focuses on the challenge for Hong Kong's democratic reformers in an environment where ultimate political power resides with the communist-led mainland government and its appointees.
* Offers a critical interpretation of official British and Chinese constraints on Hong Kong's political evolution from the 1840s to the present
* Set in the context of Britain's own democratic development and experience in preparing all its other colonies for representative self-government whether independent or not
* Traces China's fear of democracy back to the movement for elected assemblies that precipitated the downfall of the last imperial dynasty and was followed by a century of disorder from which China is still trying to recover
* Treats Hong Kong's current democracy movement as an ongoing agitation that has waxed and waned since 1949 rather than spurred simply by the antagonistic 1980s response to reunification with China
* Emphasizes the interplay between official reform proposals and popular initiatives
* Illustrates the multiple means, both institutional and popular, whereby China seeks to impose a mainland imprint on Hong Kong despite the promise of local autonomy
* Introduces the important role being played by Hong Kong's pro-China minority in the experimental development of a local multi-party system
* Questions whether Beijing's promise of Hong Kong-style autonomy for the Republic of China on Taiwan can ever be used to achieve full national reunification and write a final end to China's twentieth-century civil wars
About the Author
Suzanne Pepper is an American writer and long-time Hong Kong resident. She is the author, among other works, of Civil War in China: The Political Struggle, 1945-1949, Second Edition (Rowman & Littlefield).
For regular updates on Hong Kong politics see the author's blog at
http://chinaelectionsblog.net/hkfocus