Is Hong Kong Dying?

In 1995 FORTUNE magazine, a sister publication of TIME, published a famously controversial article entitled The Death of Hong Kong, which predicted that after 1997, when communist China resumed sovereignty over the city, it would cease to be a "vibrant international hub." The ensuing years made the argument seem naive, and Hong Kong's élite still cite it as an example of foreign ignorance. Local hubris hit a high recently when a senior official proclaimed that Hong Kong is destined to become a "Manhattan Plus."

Underneath the bravado, however, there is a growing fear that perhaps FORTUNE was prescient....