One year after Chinese troops arrived in Hong Kong, protesters are still seen on the streets

In this story:

• Sinking into recession
• Protesters take to streets
• More police than protesters
• Jiang asked to release Gao Yu
• Poll finds residents skeptical
• Related stories and sites

(CNN) -- It has been a year since Prince Charles and colonial governor Chris Patten sailed off into the night on Queen Elizabeth's yacht, leaving behind a gala celebration as China regained control of Hong Kong.

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Hong Kong appears to be much as the British left it, a dynamic city of 6.6 million with a lifestyle that was the envy of its neighbors.

And while there have not been the political or military convulsions some feared in the wake of the handover, Hong Kong these days is an anxious, restive city.

Of greatest concern is the economy. In a territory proud of its economic might, nothing has been more unnerving than the realization that Hong Kong is subsiding into the recession that has enveloped the rest of Asia.

The symptoms include:

• A 4.2 percent unemployment rate, the highest in 15 years.
  
  
• A contraction in the economy during the first quarter of 1998 for the first time in 13 years.
  
  
• The share index on the Hang Seng stock market has fallen by nearly 50 percent since the handover.
  
  
• Plummeting property prices -- they have dropped by 40 percent -- have forced the government to freeze sales of government land.
  
  
• Mounting business failures.

Hong Kong harbor

It is also symptomatic of the new Hong Kong that after Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived Tuesday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the handover, he was welcomed by two groups of protesters.

One was the Hong Kong People's Alliance for Human Rights, which planned a march Wednesday into Hong Kong's central business district to force the government into doing something to get Hong Kong out of its economic funk.

The other was a pro-democracy group that demonstrated outside Jiang's hotel Tuesday night, burning an effigy of him and calling for his resignation.

Protesters also planned to call for the release of political prisoners in China and demand that the government admit it was wrong to crush the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. Earlier this month, more than 40,000 people braved driving rain in Hong Kong to mark the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.

Andrew Cheng, a pro-democracy legislator, says that when the new legislature is seated, he will introduce a motion calling for full, direct elections in 2000 for the legislature. It will also ask for direct election of the chief executive when the term of Tung Chee-hwa, who was hand-picked by Beijing, expires in 2002.

"The purpose of this motion is to let the government realize that the high turnout rate of the last election proved that Hong Kong people are looking forward to a fully elected legislature to represent them," Cheng said.

Although pro-democracy politicians took 60 percent of the popular vote in the first election of the legislature in May, they won only 20 of the 60 seats. The electoral system was set up to ensure that the rest went to pro-Beijing candidates.

There are also those who are concerned that while protests are still allowed, they have become crowded, paranoia-inducing affairs where there are 10 times as many policemen as demonstrators.

Members of the media, the liveliest in Asia, are worried that their freedoms, which have gone largely untouched so far, may yet be curtailed.

The new Hong Kong constitution requires the territory to pass a law on treason, subversion and sedition, and the fear is it will be used to intimidate and even imprison journalists.

China has jailed journalists for reporting on issues it considers state secrets, and Hong Kong reporters often cover subjects that rankle Beijing, such as calls for Tibet's independence.

Hundreds of reporters from Hong Kong and other countries signed an advertisement published Tuesday in Apple Daily, a mass-circulation newspaper, asking Jiang to release mainland journalist Gao Yu.

Gao was jailed for six years in 1993 for leaking state secrets after she wrote a series of articles for a Hong Kong magazine about China's structural reforms.

Zhao Meng, Gao's son, urged Jiang Tuesday to free her on medical grounds, saying his mother is suffering from skin problems and a worsening heart condition. Zhao also asked U.S. President Bill Clinton to help secure her release.

On Monday, the University of Hong Kong released a survey indicating that local residents believe the economic and social conditions in Hong Kong have deteriorated in the past year.

It found that almost 95 percent of the respondents said they thought economic conditions were worse, and 48.6 percent said their confidence in Hong Kong's future had decreased since the handover.

Whether the fears of the media materialize and whether Hong Kong ever enjoys full, democratic elections remains to be seen. What is clear is that Hong Kong has problems that require immediate attention.

"Hong Kong is hurting," says Allen Lee of the Hong Kong Liberal Party. "And because the situation was not created by the handover or Chinese sovereignty, it's a problem that we have to face ... that the whole of Asia has to face."