Abstract

Hong Kong under the gun

On January 25, 1997, a group of leading local tycoons, representing tens of billions of dollars in personal wealth and vastly more in corporate assets, boarded buses outside the offices of the Xinhua News Agency, China's de facto embassy. It was probably the first time most of them had seen the inside of a bus in years, used as they are to riding in Mercedes 600s or Rolls-Royce limos when they travel locally, but they had no choice. Unless they wanted to risk being confronted by protesters at the border crossing, it was the only way to get from Hong Kong to the Chinese border city of Shenzhen, where they were meeting to open the first session of the body that will become the legislature of the new Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.