[wongarsu]

China as a whole has grown massively, making Hong Kong proportionally much less important than it was 20 years ago. That allows Bejing to stop their hands-off approach and "bring them into the fold".

[dominicl]

Yep, in 1992 Hongkong was still responsible for ~25% of China's total GDP, today its contribution little below 3% on par with other big cities.