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¶ Kansas-born Linden Johnson, 46 (no relation to Vice President-elect Lyndon Johnson), served with the U.S. Air Force in India, Burma and China, took his discharge overseas in 1948, and was trapped by the Red Chinese when they captured Shanghai. Released in 1950, Johnson arrived in Hong Kong "so busted he didn't have a bed to sleep in." Becoming the partner of a Chinese friend, Johnson rented factory space, hired a few score workers and began production of high-fashion women's clothes trademarked Dynasty. He now has a large factory in Kowloon, a showroom in the Peninsula Hotel and exports his clothes around the world. "A lot of guys come out here exploring," says Johnson, "but there's a general reluctance to stay and ride herd on the operation. And that's the only way to make it work."
¶ Soft-spoken Chen Che Lee, 49, began operations in Hong Kong in 1946 with a small textile mill and 150 workers. Today his 5,000 employees work three shifts daily producing 150,000 pajamas and blouses a month. In 1956 he sold a million dollars worth of clothes in the U.S.; last year his American exports totaled $12 million.
¶ Piero Calcina, 63, is a small, jovial Italian who came to China after World War I to sell airplanes and moved down to Hong Kong in 1948. On Calcina's desk stand 19 direct-line telephones to Hong Kong banks. A licensed gold bullion dealer, his investments range from financing a jute mill in South Viet Nam to a $532,000 loan to U.S. Lawyer Roy Cohn to help him acquire control of the Lionel Corp. (TIME, April 18). Living in the comfortable Repulse Bay Hotel, Calcina has an abhorrence of possessions, says of Hong Kong, "I don't want to own anything here. I learned my lesson in China."
As a colony, Hong Kong has personal freedom and uninhibited free enterprise but no trace of political democracy. The colony is run by the British governor, and only 20,000 specially selected citizens have any vote at all. Though U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt considered Hong Kong an embarrassing hangover from colonialism and twice urged Britain to return Hong Kong to Chiang Kai-shek's China, there is no irredentist sentiment among Hong Kong's Chinese, or even any agitation for independence. As they well know, an independent Hong Kong would be swallowed up by Red China in a matter of months.
Saving Usefulness. In Peking, Communist officials say casually: "We can take Hong Kong any time. But for the moment we do not think it necessary." Why not? The colony is not only unashamedly capitalistic; it is also an escape hatch for thousands fleeing Red oppression on the mainland. Entire fleets of fishing junks have arrived at Hong Kong with their crews and families. Some desperate men have swum to safety; others escape by being packed like sardines under the floorboards of coastal ships.