The United Kingdom（Period 4　Language Focusing）

in 1974, murray mclehose founded icac, the independent commission against corruption. the situation was so bad that there was a mass petition by policemen against prosecutions. despite early police opposition to the icac, hong kong was quite successful in its anti-corruption efforts, eventually becoming one of the least corrupt societies in the world.
the opening of the mainland chinese market and rising salaries drove many manufacturers�� north.hong kong transformed into a commercial and tourism centre.high life expectancy, literacy, per capita income and other socioeconomic measures attest to hong kong’s achievements over the last four decades of the 20th century.��
some of the changes were purely symbolic: ��
•all public offices now flew the flags of the prc and the hong kong sar.the union jack now flies only outside the british consulate.��
•more schools would now teach in cantonese with chinese textbooks, and in parallel to english.english is still an official language (see hong kong basic law) and is still being taught in all schools.��
•queen elizabeth ⅱ’s portrait disappeared from banknotes, postage stamps and public offices.as of , many pre-1997 coins and some banknotes are still in circulation.��
•the ‘royal’ title was dropped from almost all organisations that had been granted it, with the exception of the royal hong kong yacht club.��
•legal references to the ‘crown’ were replaced by references to the ‘state’, and barristers�� who had been appointed queen’s counsel would now be known as senior counsel.��
•public holidays changed, with the queen’s official birthday and other british-inspired�� occasions being replaced by chinese national day and hong kong sar establishment day.
in other respects, many things remained unchanged: ��
•the new sar remained a separate jurisdiction, continuing to use english common law.��
•the border with the mainland continued to be patrolled as before, with hong kong, unlike the mainland, continuing to drive on the left.��
•it remained a separate customs territory, with freer trade with the rest of the world than with the mainland.��
•it retained most of immigration controls to foreign countries, except politically related visa applications.similarly, hong kong sar passport holders had easier access to countries in europe and north america, while mainland citizens did not.note that the citizens in mainland china can only apply the visa to hong kong from the china government.the practice executed before and after 1997.