Hong Kong's Changing Political Order and Its Relations with Taiwan

This paper attempts to investigate how the changing political order of Hong Kong is shaped by the interactions of different political forces; namely mainland China, Britain, and the local political groups of Hong Kong. A review of how the evolving regional order and new international political order affects the future of Hong Kong shows that despite the possible setbacks caused to Hong Kong by her return to mainland China, regionalism (through Hong Kong's integration and leadership role in the South China Economic Zone) and internationalism (the internationalization of Hong Kong) can become positive factors to guarantee the future prosperity of Hong Kong. However, the state's overwhelming control over the civil society in mainland China can be extended to Hong Kong through her participation and intervention in Hong Kong's activities. Businessmen are afraid that bureaucracy, corruption, and commercial crimes would increase as 1997 approaches. Instead of practicing the Western way of management (contract, rule by law, etc.), people in Hong Kong need to adopt the "Chinese" ways in dealing with mainland China (such as kuan-hsi and corruption). The rivalry between London and Peking can be a source of instability also, as the latter is always worrying about the British "conspiracies" of implementing a parliamentary system of government, privatizing some government organizations, and limiting the progress of localization.
Situated between the two countries, local political forces in Hong Kong appear to be weak. Political groups formed by businessmen tend to live under the shadow of the Chinese Communist Party, while the leadership of the United Democrats would probably not be granted a place in the future political stage.
The article finally touches upon Taiwan-Hong Kong relations. Reconciliation of the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan might be helpful in improving Taiwan's performance in Hong Kong.