ABSTRACT
The formation of a state–business alliance in the post-1997 period is based on the assumption that by co-opting business elites as the majority of the HKSAR political establishment, the business sector could provide strong and stable political support to the post-colonial state in maintaining effective governance and steering policy-making as in the colonial past. While the business elites have been extensively incorporated in the HKSAR political establishment as originally planned, the post-1997 political developments demonstrated that the business representation system does not function smoothly when compared with the British colonial period and the post-colonial state is encountering increasing difficulties in articulating the interests of the business sector and consolidating business support for its policy initiatives. In the process of policy-making, the post-colonial state has been directly confronting different agents of business interests and even been dragged into the conflicts among competing business groups.
