ABSTRACT
A colonial situation is a political setting characterised by an unequal power relation between the metropole and the colony. It is also characterised by a lack of transparency in policymaking, with the former being able to impose its agenda on the latter. This chapter explores the political changes in the former British colony of Hong Kong in the 1970s under the governance of a popular governor, Murray MacLehose. A proper assessment of Murray MacLehose's initiation of social reforms in Hong Kong should be interpreted in connection with earlier efforts by his predecessor, David Trench, the impacts of the two riots in the mid-1960s and his own diplomatic perspective on the preparations for negotiation with China over the colony's political future. In the end, it seems that MacLehose further strengthened the practice of 'government by consent' by making the colonial government less alien and more responsive to the local population.
