Hong Kong in the Shadow of China: Living with the Leviathan - Softcover

Bush Senior Fellow Center For East Asia Policy Studies The Brookings Instituti, Richard C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815728123 ISBN 13: 9780815728122

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 2016

Synopsis

A close-up look at the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong in the Shadow of China is a reflection on the recent political turmoil in Hong Kong during which the Chinese government insisted on gradual movement toward electoral democracy and hundreds of thousands of protesters occupied major thoroughfares to push for full democracy. Fueling this struggle is deep public resentment over growing inequality and how the political system established by China and dominated by the local business community reinforces the divide been those who have profited immensely and those who struggle for such basics as housing.
Richard Bush, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on East Asia Policy Studies, takes us inside the demonstrations and the demands of the demonstrators and then pulls back to critically explore what Hong Kong and China must do to ensure both economic competitiveness and good governance and the implications of Hong Kong developments for United States policy.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Hong Kong in the Shadow of China tells the story of why the ?umbrella movement” failed to bring Hong Kong a more democratic system. the most vivid part of the tale occurred in the fall of 2014, when the umbrella movement?so-called because of the umbrellas protesters carried for protection against rain and pepper spray?occupied major thoroughfares in the city. those protests only punctuated a protracted debate over how to vest leaders with more legitimacy, while preserving social stability. they also became the background before which members of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments, the business community, politicians of every stripe, and political activists held fraught discussions on electing Hong Kong’s chief executive through universal suffrage and on whether China should control the process. because there was too little trust among these political forces, a significant opportunity for progress was missed, and the previous, non-democratic mechanism for picking the chief executive will remain in force in the foreseeable future.

Richard Bush takes us inside the debates and demonstrations and then pulls back to critically explore what Hong Kong and China must do to ensure both economic competitiveness and good governance and how these developments affect united states policy.

About the Author:

Richard Bush is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution and director of its Center on East Asia Policy Studies. He worked for nineteen years in the U.S. government on Asia policy issues, including Hong Kong. His most recent book is Uncharted Strait: The Future of China–Taiwan Relations.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0815728123
• ISBN 13: 9780815728122
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 393