LONDON -- The way in which the administration in Hong Kong was forced to pull back from its proposed antisubversion legislation has rightly been hailed as a rare example of popular feeling making its impact on the unelected government of the former British colony. But it raises more fundamental questions about how the special administrative region is going to evolve six years after its change of sovereignty.

The proposed legislation contained a number of worrying provisions, including its linking of what would be considered subversive in the SAR with what was outlawed in mainland China. That made it the immediate target for the street protest by 500,000 people July 1 that put such pressure on the government of Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. But the discontent with the administration was both deeper and wider.

The soggy state of the economy, the decline of the property market, the handling of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, the prospect of cuts in spending and civil-service numbers to reduce the deficit all created a backdrop of discontent. Beyond that lies a general feeling that the administration is not able to live up to Hong Kong's expectations, and that it is being outpaced by fast-growing cities on the mainland, notably Shanghai.