The Hong Kong we used to know

Happy new year from Hong Kong! As we open a brand new year, I thought I'd share some light but interesting facts about Hong Kong, a favorite holiday destination for Filipinos.

- ANDREW J. MASIGAN

Hong Kong has been the preferred destination for most Filipino Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials. Affordable due to proximity, Hong Kong offered a taste of the "first world" with its impressive skyscrapers, developed infrastructure and world-class tourist attractions. We enjoyed Hong Kong's vibrant art scene, its array of global retail brands and endless options for dining. As Filipinos, we envied Hong Kong's freedoms, its efficient government, its business sophistication and pulsating economy. It was a symbol of Asia's free market success.

But fast forward to the 2020s and Hong Kong is a shadow of its former self. It is no longer the principal financial and logistic hub that it used to be. Multinational corporations and expatriate professionals have left due to political unrest, waning civil liberties and a heavy-handed police.

The intellectual and artistic elite left too. Some 100,000 Hong Kong residents have immigrated abroad, mostly to the UK, US, Canada and Australia. Hong Kong's share of the Chinese economy has diminished from 19 percent in 1997 to less than two percent today. The economy has lost much of its vibrancy. Foreign direct investments are down. Tourism is down. Consumer spending is down. Shop closures are rampant, as is unemployment.

What happened?

Following Hong Kong's handover by Britain to China, Hong Kong was supposed to be an autonomous region for the next 50 years. China committed to maintain Hong Kong's laissez-faire system and democratic freedoms before it was to be taken over by China in 2047. Hence, the "one country, two systems" moniker.

But China broke its commitment as it always does. It started to incorporate Hong Kong into the greater Chinese communist system 25 years before the treaty expired.