ABSTRACT
In the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984, China promised Hong Kong a "high degree of autonomy" and a 50-year guarantee against changes in its way of life. Hong Kong's return symbolizes both an end to the colonial era of national humiliation and the next-to-last step in China's long climb back from chaos to national reunification. The territory's response to Tiananmen came first from the streets and then from the halls of power in Hong Kong and London. Presumably Britain would not have initiated its Hong Kong reform program without the massive shift in opinion against China after Tiananmen and, more importantly, in the global balance of power that followed the Soviet Union's demise. China's response to Britain's 1992 agenda for Hong Kong reflected China's historic predicament with arguments and actions that tried to deflect the world trends arrayed against it.
