ABSTRACT
The Belgians, British, Danes, Dutch, French, Germans, Portuguese, Spanish, amongst others, all engaged in significant offshore imperialism and colonization. The British Empire was assembled by force, especially by naval power, and maintained through the exercise of hard, sharp, and soft power across its many components. The British developed improved modes of governance and administration, which relied on professionally trained, colonial officials, who typically found a lifelong career overseeing and running the vast empire. The accompanying discussions of the British legacy, the strained Sino-American relationship, and where Hong Kong currently finds itself each provides important context for reviewing the future political constitutional options which face the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The British in Hong Kong found themselves governing a society which drew on centuries of deep mutual understanding which underpinned the conspicuously self-reliant, core aspects of Chinese Familialism. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
