To lunch at the Hong Kong Club, founded in 1846 as a watering hole for the British ruling elite. My host is CH Tung, Anglophile, tycoon, and the territory’s first chief executive after the British handover to China in 1997.
CH is 79 but still sprightly. Like many of his generation, he ended up in Hong Kong as a refugee from Shanghai, fleeing the communists after the second world war. His career, from businessman to top bureaucrat, gives him a unique insight into the territory’s past, present and future.
His verdict is equivocal, and one widely heard during my three-day visit. Hong Kong can still count on the rule of law, a top financial centre and its role as regional entrepôt, but the dynamism has faded. Slow growth and sky-high housing prices are squeezing the middle class and hurting upward mobility. Business is doing what it knows best, such as investing in real estate. But innovation is lacking. Back in the 1970s, the local film industry was a Kung Fu hit factory. Today, Bollywood makes the waves. Hong Kong has not developed public policy institutes to inform civic debate. Land reclamation, which once paved the way for bold projects such as the Chek Lap Kok airport, is stalling.