Hong Kong's future

On 1 July 1997, 156 years of British colonial rule in Hong Kong will come to an end the city will then again be apart af China. Britain loses its last colony of any significance, whereas the event allows China to close what it views as a dark chapter of colonial ignominy and national humiliation inflicted by foreign powers through gunboats and ''unequal treaties'' in the 19th century. The change of rule in Hong Kong also means an experiment whose outcome is uncertain Whereas the rest of the Chinese mainland has been ruled by a Communist regime and system since 1949 Hong Kong has been part of the Western world characterised by a market economy since the 19th century and democratic structures have also developed in the city during the last phase of the colonial era. Through its slogan ''one country, two systems'' the Chinese government has given the assurance that it intend respecting the specifically different conditions which exist in Hong Kong (whose sustainment is also, to a large extent, in Beijing's own interest on account of the city's importance as an international transhipment point and as an economic motor). The sharp Chinese rejection of some of the major political structural elements which have evolved has caused uncertainties. Bianca Horlemann, a jurist and sinologist who worked in China for many year and who now lives in Hong Kong, discusses the problems in the following article.