This week’s anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China marks Beijing’s broken promises less than halfway through the city’s mandated 50 years with a high degree of autonomy. It’s also a time to examine why the Western defense of Hong Kong’s liberty has been so muddled. And it’s a fitting moment to remember that during handover time Hong Kong was the center of the universe, a place with far more hope and far less despair about its future..
Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is editor at large for Inside Asian Gaming, contributor to Forbes, columnist/correspondent for Asia Times, and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his bio, online archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook and Twitter @MuhammadCohen.