The writing of this book has been caught up in the rapid changes in Hong Kong's politics. The first edition was almost complete and ready to go to press in June 2019 when major protests erupted in Hong Kong. Thanks to the nimble work of Agenda Publishing, I was able to add a short Afterword to the first edition, covering events up to 17 June 2019, including the two most substantial and largely-peaceful protests on 9 and 16 June, as well as more violent scenes on 12 June. At the time, it looked as if the government's announcement on 15 June that it was suspending the extradition bill which was the catalyst for the protests meant that things might subside before too long. However, the protesters had the wind in their sails, and the events of mid-June turned out to be just the beginning of a long, hot summer and autumn of unrest in Hong Kong.

A little more than a year on, it seems to be tempting fate to try to finalize a second edition of this book. Much has changed over the past year, irrespective of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic which has dominated many people's attention in 2020. In Hong Kong politics, the year which began with the June 2019 protests culminated in the controversial passage in Beijing of a national security law for Hong Kong on 30 June 2020, the eve of the twenty-third anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty.

This second edition contains a new Chapter 6 covering the last year in detail to the beginning of August 2020; too much has happened to include everything, and these events are recent and highly contested, but the chapter reflects my best efforts to make sensible judgements about them. This is followed by a new Conclusion which attempts another look at the future of Hong Kong. I have kept other changes to the first edition to a minimum.

Many of the underlying trends I identified in the first edition remain relevant today in the way that local, national and global forces are intertwined in shaping the politics of China's global city.