Will the Hong Kong Model Survive?: An Assessment 20 Years After the Handover

Twenty years after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, there are serious concerns about viability of the "one country, two systems" model in light of Beijing's unprecedented encroachments in recent years. The late 2015 disappearances of several Hong Kong-based booksellers sent shockwaves through the territory and the recent election of a new Chief Executive is a reminder that the promise of universal suffrage remains unfulfilled. At the same time there is a continuing erosion of press freedom and growing threats to judicial independence, both vital in any healthy democracy. The Commission will examine the long-term prospects for human rights and basic freedoms in Hong Kong as well as challenges to preserving its promised "high degree of autonomy."