Back to the Future?

For years, whenever I have introduced the subject of China to my Comparative Politics students, I have posed the question:  Is Hong Kong the future of China, or is China the future of Hong Kong?  The point is that when compared to the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong has always been very different.  Hong Kong was British territory.  The Queen's government was not going to be mistaken for that of the Communist Party.  Of course it would be different.  Then in 1997, sovereignty was transferred from the UK to the PRC and it began to make sense to wonder.  Now they were both parts of the same country.  Could the massive differences be sustained?

That is still a good question.  We started our visit to China with a stop in Hong Kong to provide a baseline for evaluating that question.  Just how different are Hong Kong and the PRC today?  Judging from my short stay here it does not seem that all that much has changed from the British tenure.  You can still see the Rolls Royces in front of the posh hotels, waiting for a guest to need a lift.  If you wander (and we always wander) you won't go far in the downtown without coming upon someone protesting this or that.  I will be shocked if we see either on the other side of what they still refer to as the border.

In a few hours we will start to see what differences (if any) there are.  I am not sure if I will be able to blog from the other side.  I know some web sites are blocked (how cool would it be if they blocked mine?) you may or may not see another post before May 3rd when we head home.  If I can I will, if not - we'll catch you on the other side.