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

By Richard C. Bush

Call Number: JQ1539.5.A91 B87 2016

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“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 Umbrella Movement, so called because of the umbrellas protesters carried for protection against ran and pepper spray, … only punctuated a protracted debate over how to vest leaders with more legitimacy, while preserving social stability … [protests] 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 … 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” (publisher).

Richard Bush has gathered recent survey data and other primary sources that will remain relevant to the ongoing debates about Hong Kong. The book includes extensive notes and an index. 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.