From Empire Defence to Imperial Retreat: Britain's Postwar China Policy and the Decolonization of Hong Kong

• Main Author: TANG, James T. H.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1994
• Subjects: Asian History; Asian Studies; International Relations; Political Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2238; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3495/viewcontent/from_empire_defence.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Attempts to examine Hong Kong as an issue in British postwar colonialpolicy often emphasize the unique nature of the colony, andtherefore a special case in British decolonization. Hong Kong hasbeen regarded as an unconventional colonial entity, an anachronismin the modern world. But others argue that the word colony is not anappropriate term to describe it, except in the most severely technicallegal sense, because of its spectacular industrial and economicdevelopment since the end of the Second World War.' Nonetheless,Hong Kong has existed as a British crown colony since I842, and itscolonial political structures have remained more or less the same untilthe early ig8os. Hong Kong's special relations with China is animportant factor making it an oddity in post-war British decolonization.Instead of becoming independent like most other British colonialterritories, Hong Kong's political future is linked to China. Thissituation of 'decolonization without independence' has been animportant theme of academic analysis on the colony's politicaldevelopment.