Democracy and Dissonance - China's First Local Elections.
With Hong Kong returning to Chinese rule, Roger Thompson looks at when the colony influenced reformers who tried to bring the ballot box to the Middle Kingdom.
A century ago, as China was still reeling from the repercussions of its humiliating defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, a widening debate on solutions to the country's crises touched on topics like democracy, constitutional monarchy and local self-government. The situation worsened after diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and Russia, with approval from officials of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), began to carve the country into 'spheres of influence' and 'concessions'. The British signed the most famous of these deals in 1898 for the peninsula and adjacent islands leading up to the Crown Colony of Hong Kong.
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