What Britain can do as part of the sino-british agreement will remain to be seen. John Major did warn the Chinese of consequences in 1996 before the handover, if they didn't live up to their promises regarding the joint agreement. Of course the chinese just put their own representatives in right after the handover, and did not consult the HK people, but then neither did the british administration. I do feel Patten for his part tried to leave a legacy and bring in more transparency, and who can deny the British went all out before the handover, the new airport and transport links, the convention and exhibition centre to name a couple of projects.

As you say, it will be interesting to see where things turn from here. 1 view is that HK will simply become integrated with Shenzhen, and that there might be a border still, but with less clout than now.

Have a good one,
CT