Hong Kong's Second Return to China

A Critical Discourse Study of the National Security Law and its Aftermath

Jennifer Eagleton

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9783031845864
• eBook ISBN: 9783031845871
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book is a cross-disciplinary study, incorporating political science, law, and sociolinguistics in its examination of Hong Kong’s National Security Law which has impacted many aspects of life in the city. Through a critical discourse analysis lens, it details the lead-up to the Law’s introduction in 2020, a textual analysis of the Law itself, the “selling” the Law to the public, the accompanying electoral changes, the effect on civil society, and the discourse of dissidents in exile. It ends with speculation on what the future will bring to the so-called “One Country, Two Systems” as it goes forward. The book caters for the general reader, the university student, and seasoned academic who want to be informed about the changes in Hong Kong as it transitions to be more “fully China”. The book ultimately argues that the “One Country, Two Systems” experimental framework had always been problematic from both a rhetorical and ideological perspective.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: The “Second Return”
• 2. National Security in the Chinese Context
• 3. Selling the National Security Law
• 4. Ensuring Patriots Administer Hong Kong
• 5. Education Under the National Security Law
• 6. Civil Society Under the National Security Law
• 7. Hong Kong Democracy Activists in Self-Exile
• 8. The Future of One Country, Two Systems
• Back Matter