| Abstract | When Britain's last governor sails out of Hong Kong on 1 July 1997, the colonial government will be replaced by a new and untested power structrue. Yes, the fledgling special administrative region (SAR) will still have familiar sources of authority - the judiciary, the police, big business. But into the picture will step wholly new institutions from China, which may or may not develop into power centers in their own right. They include the local representatives of Beijing's Foreign Ministry and the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Also uncertain are the new functions of an established player, the Xinhua News Agency. Most of Hong Kong's coming institutions and brokers of power are more closely associated with the "one-country" side of the famous formula governing the status of the territory's under China. |
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