Ten Years On

Hong Kong is being splashed around the media these days, for the ten year handover anniversary to the Chinese. There's plenty read on every corner of the web, but Newsweek has a good article about Hong Kong's "Troubled Youth" since 1997.

Oddly many of my colleagues and friends are relatively apathetic about the events. Perhaps because some of the have been through so much in the last 10 years. Or perhaps because many of them spent most of Hong Kong's tumultuous years abroad.

Either way, Hong Kong is doing just fine, and Beijing is very far way.

Taken from Newsweek.

"Hong Kong, some would say, was born under a bad sign. Its gala handover celebration in 1997--when China re-established sovereignty over the longtime British colony--segued almost immediately to an Asia-wide financial crisis, which sent stock and housing prices tumbling. Amid the deep recession that followed, Hong Kong endured a killer-flu-like epidemic and saw mass demonstrations erupt over a botched government effort to pass tough security legislation its opponents feared would be used to target them. In 2005, Hong Kong's first leader quit two years early, and since then his successor has put the economy back on track."