[arcticbull]

By creating a free economy (the world's most free 22 years running) in which foreign companies can operate. It's sort of a middle ground/gateway for doing business with and in China. It's a world financial center. It still represents some 3% of the entir,e GDP of China while being only 0.5% of it's population (7 million of China's 1.357 billion people). I wonder how much more depends on Hong Kong's existence. GDP per capita is 38K vs. 6K. I wonder how much of this would remain if the full force of Beijing came down on the region.