ABSTRACT
The political history of Hong Kong started with Britain’s occupation of the territory in 1842. This chapter argues that while capitalist development continued to play a part in the process, particular political and cultural processes had shaped the specificities of political struggles which had a great impact on the character of the public sphere. Within the local community, there had developed a strong non-state run economic domain of trading activity, and the commercial press emerged and grew under such development. For long the government in Hong Kong had been essentially of a closed, undemocratic structure under the executive leadership of a colonial governor who was ultimately answerable to the Secretary of State in London rather than the public in local community. Since the 1970s, the system of political co-optation and channeled consultation by the government was designed to create an image of public consent while containing possible discontents against the administration.
