8
Hong Kong’s constitutional journey, 1997 – 2011
Johannes Chan
prologue
At midnight on 30 June 1997 , the Hong Kong Convention Centre was flooded with
political dignitaries, with the Prince of Wales leading the British delegation and
President Jiang Zemin leading the Chinese delegation, all waiting eagerly but in
entirely different moods to witness the handover ceremony of Hong Kong to China.
As the Union Jack was lowered for the last time in Hong Kong, Britain’s 150 -year
reign over her last colony in Asia came to an end. The fading tune of ‘God Save the
Queen’ was soon followed by the marching trumpets of the People’s Republic of
China’s (PRC) national anthem, and immediately the PRC flag was steadily and
confidently hoisted, accompanied by the visibly smaller special administrative
region (SAR) flag, which was raised at half a pace slower, thus marking the dawn
of a new era for Hong Kong. The Hong Kong SAR was born, with the relative
positions of the PRC flag and the SAR flag vividly and powerfully conveying the
message that ‘one country’ comes before ‘two systems’ in the innovative consti-
tutional arrangement of ‘one country, two systems’.
i. a high degree of autonomy: the arrangement
of ‘one country, two systems’The arrangement
Pursuant to the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 , Hong Kong became a
special administrative region (HKSAR) of the PRC on 1 July 1997.
1
It enjoys
a high degree of autonomy except in foreign affairs and defence and in areas
(^1) For a detailed description of the process of the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, see
J. Chan, ‘From colony to SAR’, in Johannes Chan and C.L. Lim (eds.),Law of the Hong
Kong Constitution(Hong Kong: Sweet & Maxwell, 2011 ),Chapter 1.