Business: Hong Kong's Golden Link

Opening up shop in China, where space is big and pay is small

A barren island with hardly a house upon it." Such was British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's contemptuous description of Hong Kong before it was ceded to the British by a weak Chinese regime at the close of the Opium War in 1842. As a fruit of war, it was not considered a peach. But over the past 137 years, the once blighted island has developed into a bustling seaport colony that boasts a thriving economy. Though Britain's lease on 90% of the...

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