Google has added a very cool function - allowing you to search scanned newspapers over the past century or so. the best feature is the timeline, showing the frequency of stories about the search terms, plus you can narrow it down to free archives. The number of newspapers seems limited at the moment - but check this for example - the Sydney Morning Herald on the fall of Hong Kong
re:Google News Archive
btw that was from me: to find news archive normally you go to google news and go to advanced search. you'll find it from there
re:Google News Archive
Thanks for highlighting this - I'll add it in under the other tools we know of for researching HK history.