I returned to my native Hong Kong in 1998 after more than two decades of working as a reporter in New York City. I was hired to start a journalism program at the University of Hong Kong, my alma mater, and train a new generation of reporters to tell the stories of Hong Kong, China and Asia. It was a big and timely beat. Hong Kong was handed over to China after 156 years of British rule 10 months before I returned. In an ingenious stroke designed to reassure the international community and Hong Kong people, China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, devised the “one country, two systems” arrangement: Beijing would assume sovereignty, but Hong Kong would keep its rule of law and capitalist ways for 50 years, writes Yuen Ying Chan. Read more
