The "Hong Kong Becoming China" multi-volume series is published for an international readership. It aims to provide both expert analysis and the documentary basis for an informed understanding of Hong Kong's transition as a free society and capitalist economy toward socialist Chinese sovereignty under the "One country, Two systems" formula. This series explores the crucial dimensions of Hong Kong's current developments in this transitional process, as well as their global implications. This work presents the major documents, with commentary, on the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, which was drafted as the constitutional blueprint for Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty for the years 1997 to 2047. In addition to examining the transitional period from a variety of perspectives, the book presents a legal analysis of the PRC's socialist legal system and mentality, and considers how some of the principles underlying that system have been inserted into Hong Kong's legal and administrative system.It also examines the conflicts inherent in the drafting process between the awakened desires for a genuinely democratic and autonomous administration, on the one hand, and the PRC's objective in maintaining control of the levers of power.
