| ID | 162092 |
| Title Proper | Twenty Years After the Handover |
| Other Title Information | Hong Kong’s Political and Social Transformation and Its Future under China’s Rule |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Cabestan, Jean-Pierre |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) as well as its Kowloon West terminal are due to open before the end of September 2018. There is probably no saga that better encapsulates Hong Kong’s delicate situation as well as its relations with the central government just 21 years after the British colony’s return to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1997. Many Hong Kong pan-democrats and opposition politicians have questioned the so-called co-location of border procedures at West Kowloon Station, which implies the ceding of part of Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region (SAR) back to the mainland and the permanent presence of mainland China’s immigration and quarantine officers empowered to implement mainland law in the heart of Hong Kong. Some legal procedures launched by opposition politicians are still pending, but for both the Beijing and Hong Kong authorities it is a done deal. Other issues attached to the XRL, such as its high cost, construction defects, expensive ticket prices, likely unprofitability, and delays have marred its construction and completion. Nonetheless, this ambitious, long-planned, and long-expected project has raised many questions about Hong Kong’s economic integration with the mainland, political and legal autonomy, as well as Hong Kong identity, more than 20 years after the handover. It has, to put it simply, led a growing number of Hong Kongers to ask themselves: is the SAR likely to become just another Chinese metropolis like Shanghai or Guangzhou? Can Hong Kong keep not only its promised “high degree of autonomy” but also its uniqueness? |
| `In' analytical Note | China Perspectives , No.3; 2018: p.3-6 |
| Journal Source | China Perspectives 2018-09 |