Stephen Vines, "Defying the Dragon: Hong Kong and the World’s Largest Dictatorship" (Hurst, 2021)
New Books in East Asian Studies
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The New Wonderful Order in Hong Kong
In China, the only form of civil society which is permitted is that which is sanctioned by the party. The people can't elect the government, but they have elections and they elect legislators who have virtually no power. It has a head of state, not a head of states, a head of government, appointed so you have mate control over that person. And it has a willing, a band of enthusiastic cheer leaders among the elite, who, to preserve their own privileges position, will basically play along with whatever who's in charge wants them to play along. Some of the leading lights of the new order are precisely the leading light of the old colonial order. They shamelessly changed their shirts overnight
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