However complex the workings of the Hong Kong economy, the mainspring that drives the mechanism is simple enough. It prospers by doing what China could, but – wisely or foolishly – will not do.
The pattern was established from the outset. In 1839, China banned opium traders from its coasts after a rise in drug addiction. Britain then seized Hong Kong for the purpose of drug trafficking along those coasts. Hong Kong would do what China had determined not to.
This beginning also introduced another aspect of the set-up. The authorities are not always diligent in rooting out dubious practices when commerce is concerned.
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