Two decades after taking over Hong Kong, China is getting tougher

TWO decades ago a media circus descended on Hong Kong to witness its transfer, after a century and a half as a British colony, to Chinese rule. The handover on July 1st 1997 was an extraordinary, and for many, a poignant moment—not least for the people of Hong Kong, who had created a phenomenal economic success and who were now being placed in the care of a Leninist one-party state.

Britain’s acquisition of the “barren rock” of Hong Kong in 1842 after a brief, unequal war marked the rise not just of a small, aggressive, mercantile, maritime power but the ascent, in general, of the West. Equally, it marked the decline of a once-great civilisation. Hong Kong’s return brought the narrative full circle. For all the pomp, it was clear that Britain was just another so-so power, and China a fast-rising one that might one day eclipse the West. For the government in Beijing it was a moment of triumph: China was back.