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"In the last thirty years most countries in East and South‐East Asia have suffered major political upheavals. Regimes have been overthrown and constitutions rewritten following defeat in war, the withdrawal of the colonial powers, communist revolutions or military coups d'etat. Throughout all these convulsions Hong Kong has continued to run its affairs in accordance with a constitution which is basically and formally the same as it was in the nineteenth century. . . . Why has this living fossil of early imperial government managed to survive and prosper when its larger neighbors have undergone such far‐reaching changes? The short answer is that the colony continues to exist only because it suits the interests of Britain, China, and its own citizens that this should be so." While this shared desire remains, "the colony is safe, provided only that it remains able to earn its living by successful trading in the world's markets; for an economic slump would put its separate existency in jeopardy as surely as any conscious act by Britain, China, or its own population." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]