ABSTRACT
By all accounts, the 1997 transition in Hong Kong was pretty smooth. However, a militant anti-China stance has suddenly emerged in Hong Kong since the late 2000s. This chapter aims to examine the following two research questions: what explains the emergence of anti-China movements and pro-independence organizations in Hong Kong? Why did Hong Kong’s integration with China suddenly go astray in the late 2000s? Using a dynamic historical approach, this chapter traces the long historical processes through which Hong Kong’s integration with mainland China emerged, evolved, and ran into problems. Although Beijing assumes that more direct intervention and quicker integration would bring Hong Kong people closer to the motherland, this chapter, however, shows that such state-led integration process since 2003 have backfired and produced a new wave of anti-mainland sentiments and movements.
