摘要
Within the last few years, Hong Kong society has reacted with increasing sensitivity to issues of civil liberties. This heightened awareness contrasts sharply with the previous atmosphere in Hong Kong, which appeared to be relatively content with a “benign” colonial rule under the British and in which no significant movement for civil or political rights existed. This rising new consciousness of civil liberties may be largely attributed to the “spectre” of 1997. The people of Hong Kong believe that the rights and freedoms which they currently enjoy are more extensive than those of their compatriots in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and they fear that after Hong Kong’s incorporation into the PRC in 1997, civil liberties will be curtailed. Thus, in the closing years of British rule, the people of Hong Kong, or at least the more vocal and politically conscious among them, have become more vigilant on matters of civil liberties. Perhaps it is common psychology suddenly to treasure and jealously defend that which one has possessed, when the prospect of losing it suddenly becomes very real.