Hong Kong ceased to be a colony of Britain on June 30th, 1997, thus entering anew stage of its development and evolution as a uniquely-constituted city state and urban metropolis. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (HKSAR) inherited a linguistic ecology that owed much to its previous existence as a British colony, where the Chinese language had had no de jure status until 1974. From 1995, the stated policy of government has been to promote a “biliterate” (Chinese and English) and “trilingual” (Cantonese, Putonghua and English) society, and various measures have also been taken to promote the use of Chinese as a medium of instruction in schools. Immediately after the change in sovereignty, Putonghua became a compulsory school subject for the first time. This paper will examine the issue of language planning and policies partly froman historical perspective, but also through a consideration of currentpolicies and practices across a range of domains, including government, law and education. One major conclusion that emerges from this discussion is that, froma language policy perspective, the relationship between Chinese and Englishin the Hong Kong context is potentially far less contentious than that betweenCantonese and Putonghua.