The First Tung Chee-hwa Administration: The First Five Years of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Edited by Lau Siu-kai. [Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2002. xxxiv+430 pp. ISBN 962-996-015-X.]

Why has Hong Kong's experience as a Special Administrative Region proved so disappointing? Since 1997, the government has become more unpopular than at any time since regular opinion polls began two decades ago. The public has responded with disquiet to changes in long-established housing, educational, hospital and welfare programmes because the new policies are perceived as very often ill-conceived and poorly co-ordinated.