INTRODUCTION

ON July 1, 1997, the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong will revert from British to Chinese rule. For the leaders of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong reversion and the creation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) are a potent symbol of the end of nearly two centuries of maltreatment by exploitative foreign powers. For Beijing, regaining sovereignty over Hong Kong is a major step toward completing the reunification of China, a process that began with the proclamation of the PRC in 1949 and will be completed only after Macao and Taiwan are returned to the embrace of the motherland.

The reversion of Hong Kong is also a moral issue for Beijing: The British used coercive military force to establish their ownership of the territory. Although all Chinese governments since the 1840s have grudgingly accepted the reality of British control, and even profited by it, none has accepted the legal or moral basis for the British presence. (Leaders in Beijing and Taipei find common ground in their respective evaluations of the status of Hong Kong.) For Chinese Communists and Chinese Nationalists alike, reversion amounts to a correction of the historical record, or the resolution of an historical anomaly. The restoration of Chinese sovereignty is to be viewed as a moral act.

It is precisely for this reason that the stationing of members of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Hong Kong is an issue of transcendent importance for China's leaders.