Hong Kong Transferring Hands
When one look's at Hong Kong there are many of questions that come to mind. How is China going to respond to citizens of Hong Kong holding protests? Will Hong Kong's citizens be taken back by their lose of rights? Or will this more liberal form of government led the rest of China into a more democratic state? Instead of focusing on the unknown I saw this paper as an opportunity to study Hong Kong new form of government. This paper will briefly look at Hong Kong from a historical prospective. It will explain how Hong Kong became a colony of Britain. It will briefly discuss the Hong Kong handover and possible implications. The paper will compare the governments of Hong Kong under the British and the new Special Administrative Region for China. The paper will also draw comparisons between the Basic Law, which will guide the Special Administrative Region, and the Constitution of the United States of America. I choose to compare the Basic law to these two governments, thinking that most people didn't realize how similar the new and old system in Hong Kong really were. Also upon reading the Basic Law I was struck by the similarities with our own constitution. It is when you read further into the Basic law that you discover how di
The Basic Law is also similar to the United States Constitution in the powers and responsibilities it lays out for it Legislative Branch, known as the Legislative Council. The Legislative Council is there to assist the Chief Executive in governing Hong Kong, it is suppose to be the citizens voice, to speak about the issues facing Hong Kong. The Basic Law, like the Constitution sets term limits on the length of time spent in office, by council members. Both documents put the power to set forth laws in the hands of the Legislative branch. In America and Hong Kong all taxes and government spending have to be approved by the Legislative branches. The Basic Law also intends for the Legislative branch to a place where government and public management is questioned. It states that one the Legislative Council's responsibilities are "to receive and debate policy addresses of the Chief Executive." The Basic Law goes further and says another job of the Council's is "to raise questions on the work of governments." These on the surface make it sound like the Basic Law gives the Legislative Council the ability to check the Chief Executive, but the document goes no further. It doesn't put forward a way for the Council to block an action of the Executive branch like the United States Constitution employs. In this past year there have been no drastic changes. China appears to be cautious not to overact and make a mistake that could blow up in their faces. The Chinese government prefers to work behind the scenes trying to convince the citizens of Hong Kong, it is in their best interests to work with China. This is not an uncommon situation for the residents of Hong Kong. England used the same argument in Hog Kong's colonial period. The optimists in Hong Kong look at the handover as the first chance the Gail Dutton, in her review Hong King, One year later, she points out that China is not censoring Hong Kong, instead it is Hong Kong's businessmen who are censoring themselves. The businessmen want to avoid making waves. Dutton points to Ming Pao as an example, a leading Chinese language newspaper, which fired columnists who had strong criticisms about the People's Republic of China. The paper also advised it remaining columnist to tone down the rhetoric. Another change in Hong Kong's government according to Dutton is that information may not be disseminated without government authorization, if it relates to government operations, government personal, international organizations, or even crimes and special investigations carried out under statutory warrants. Almost anything from plane crashes to fires may be with held from the media. During the last year privacy laws have been amended to limit information which is available about public figures. This concerns Dutton, she sees privacy as a disguise for hiding illegal practices. It is also the step in centralizing the media, which In the nineteen eighties, when Hong Kong was thriving as a free market economy, members of the British and Chinese governments began to become concerned about what might happen when the lease expired on July 1, 1997. Would China come marching in overrunning the city? Or would Britain refuse to relinquish control? It was in this environment of uncertainty that these two governments began working together on Hong Kong's future. On September 26, 1984 a draft was agreed upon. The Prime Ministers of both countries signed the actual agreement, the Joint Declaration, on December 19, 1984. The Joint Declaration was registered with the United Nations on June 12, 1985. to be Department heads, Assistant Department heads, and all judges in the Hong Kong region. It is also within the Chief Executives scope of power to remove any of the aforementioned people from office.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Hong Kong, Chief Executive, Hong Kong's, Legislative Council, hong kong, Basic Law, Law Constitution, Li Peng, chief executive, Legislative Council's, United America, basic law, President United, legislative council, hong kong's, day hong, joint declaration, day hong kong, chinese government, citizens hong kong, kong china, special administrative region, branches government, hong kong handover, hong kong china,
Approximate Word count = 3717
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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