Hong Kong Fights for Survival

The West was still congratulating itself on the "end of history" when Hong Kong, one of Great Britain's last colonial holdings, was handed over to the People's Republic of China in 1997. The event was seen as a denouement to the age of colonialism, heralding the arrival of a new capitalist modernity unifying East and West. There was ample reason to believe China's government—then negotiating its membership in the World Trade Organization—would before long become a steward of the liberal world order.