ABSTRACT
Hong Kong’s imminent return to China as of July 1, 1997, is one of the great historical events of the late 20th century. At one stroke, it will virtually end the European colonial era (Portugal’s colony of Macau reverts to China in 1999), while at the same time posing this dramatic question: What happens when one of the world’s most freewheeling and least regulated societies is taken over by one of the most control-minded regimes on earth?
