In-between liberal authoritarianism and electoral authoritarianism: Hong Kong’s democratization under Chinese sovereignty, 1997–2016

On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the handover, Hong Kong’s transition towards a full democracy remains unsettled. Drawing upon the contemporary theories of hybrid regimes, this article argues that manipulations adopted by electoral authoritarian governments have become increasingly common in Hong Kong today. As Hong Kong’s elections, opposition activities, and media have been increasingly put under electoral authoritarian-style manipulations, the city-state is now situated in the “political grey zone” in-between liberal authoritarianism and electoral authoritarianism and its transition into a full democracy remains nowhere in sight. The case study of Hong Kong will help enrich the existing comparative literature on hybrid regimes by developing a new “in-between category” and offering an interesting case of democratization of sub-national polity.     

Disunited in ethnicity: the racialization of Chinese Mainlanders in Hong Kong

In the current climate of increasing antagonisms and populist discontents surrounding the visible presence of mainland mobilities in postcolonial Hong Kong, there is an acute need to understand how those from Mainland China are racialized. Lowe and Tsang's article provides an examination of the campaign against Mainlanders prevalent in Hong Kong society. The emergent conflicts between Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese migrants overlap with the duality of time or differing time-inflected cultural habits of Mainlanders and Hong Kongers. As Hong Kong's citizenry and Mainlanders contest the status of the former colony and claim rights over it in ways aberrant to both factions' national consciousness, discrimination increases as Mainlanders are castigated by Hong Kongers for grazing their territory with mannerisms deemed unsettling to Hong Kong's everyday notions of time and space. Hong Kongers' sense of collective identity is shored-up as they reject the People's Republic of China’s favoured concept of pan-Chinese ethnicity by constructing Mainlanders as the inverse of themselves.     

Civic Engagement – A Problem in Search of a Solution?

This article discusses the use of community partnerships to produce civic engagement. In two undergraduate courses during the Fall 2016 semester, students created products that met the stated needs of local nonprofit organizations. Students indicated a positive reaction to their experiences in qualitative assessment instruments, and the community partners were appreciative of students’ output. Given the semester-long timeframe of the projects, it is unknown whether they will lead to greater civic engagement on the part of students or the communities in which the projects took place.     

Suicide Ideation among Participants in an After-School Program: A Convenience Sample

This exploratory study examined differences between elementary-age youth who have considered suicide and their peers using a data set that was collected from elementary school-age children (N = 51) who participated in an after-school program. Data were collected using a standardized survey assessing daily activities, social support, self-esteem, and antisocial behaviors. Youth considering suicide were distinctive from their peers in two composite measures representing club affiliation and illicit drug use. However, these two groups of youth did not differ in attitudes about school or a composite measure of worry, low confidence, and antisociality. These findings were interpreted as reflecting these vulnerable youths' ambivalence about seeking help, which presents an opportunity for intervention.     

反劫持基础业务建设刍议

劫持人质犯罪对国家、集体、公民个人的生命财产危害极大,对社会的公共安全和稳定威胁严重。反劫持临场战斗的胜利有赖于平时扎实的基础业务建设。本文从警用装备、指挥系统与堵卡网络、犯罪情报、防暴专业队伍、预案的制定与演练等五个方面论述了反劫持的基础业务建设工作。     

《证券法》与《股票发行与交易管理暂行条例》上市公司收购之规定比较

《证券法》与《股票发行与交易管理暂行条例》关于上市公司收购的规定有冲突 ,《证券法》的规定较《条例》更为合理和便于监管 ,因此 ,凡《证券法》已有规定的 ,应适用《证券法》 ,《证券法》未作规定或规定不完善的 ,以《条例》作补充。     

青少年犯罪后实施社区矫正的新模式——香港社区支援服务计划

香港自20世纪80年代开始推行以“社会为本,辅导为主”的犯罪矫治措施,强调以较宽容的态度处理轻微罪行的青少年,尽量避免让犯罪青少年进入司法审讯制度内,避免把犯事的青少年监禁起来,而是让青少年留在原来的社区里,改过自新,重新做人。在实践中,为了适应社会发展和社区的需要,香港又相继推出了“社区为本”的自新计划,其中就包括社区支援服务计划。     

Political repression in a sub-national hybrid regime: the PRC’s governing strategies in Hong Kong

Existing literature has long recognised that the Beijing government has utilised different strategies to suppress the opposition in Hong Kong. However, with the rise of localism against the Chinese government, the implications of such political repression require new exploration and insight. This article adopts Hale’s analytical framework on political repression and argues that the Beijing government can comparatively tolerate an opposition fighting for democratisation, but the localists who advocate self-determination or separatism are harshly condemned and suppressed. In Beijing’s approach, this ‘red line’ was adopted to place national security, territory integration and sovereignty as the top considerations. Theoretically, this paper contributes to distinguishing between two types of opposition groups within sub-national hybrid regimes and analyzes different responses from the sovereign state. Empirically, the case of Hong Kong will help enrich the existing literature by comparing Beijing’s strategies of repression in regard to the democratic opposition and localists.     

The challenge of assessing governance in Asian states: Hong Kong in the Worldwide Governance Indicators ranking

As countries in Asia work towards achieving development, the state of governance emerged as a benchmark for them. Assessing governance is an important exercise because a country’s image is influenced by its position in world rankings which plays a role in decisions by the international community regarding aid and trade. The methodology adopted in preparing the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) rankings underlines the preference for some values that are dominant in Western liberal democratic systems. This places Asian states at a disadvantage as other traditional values are ignored in assessing the state of governance. This article examines the methods and criteria of the WGI with reference to the case of Hong Kong. An overview of the critiques of WGI and analysis of the scores awarded to Hong Kong reveal the challenge of assessing governance across countries with the same instrument without taking into consideration the context of the units. The article argues that there is a need for developing alternative criteria for accommodating indigenous institutional structures, processes, and practices to ensure that Asian countries can benefit from the desired values of governance and help overcome the partial picture of governance that emerges in the WGI.