Thread: Today marks the 30th anniversary of the "Basic Law," which set out the parameters by which Hong Kong was supposed to be able to remain notable different from all mainland cities for 50 years after the 1997 Handover--here are some relevant sections on it from my book VIGIL

Excerpts from page 30 (about the Basic Law growing out of the 1984 agreement between London and Beijing) and page 39 on protests being linked to the part of it promising Hong Kong's people a large role in choosing local officials

Excerpts from pages 13 and 14, on ways that Hong Kong has remained different from mainland cities, as the Basic Law promised, and how recent developments such as allowing mainland security to control a train station inside Hong Kong has made some difference blur or disappear

Vigil has other Basic Law-related sections (eg on Thatcher predicting in 1990 the CCP would honor its promises due to wanting to be seen as doing so in the "forum of the world," something less of a concern now) but here's just a screen shot of p. 98 on what to read 4 much more

Note: my main reason for posting part of p. 98 was to flag the excellent @dgittings Basic Law book but the image shows a reason why instead of calling my book on the 2010s Hong on the Brink as planned we added Vigil in front--to distinguish it from a good read on an earlier time