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Opinion | So Hong Kong is facing big challenges. What’s new?
- Since the 1980s alone, Hong Kong has grappled with stock and property market crashes, financial crises, protests and pandemics
- The city is uniquely defined by its challenging history, where people have always managed to pick themselves up and carve out a better future
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When I first saw the button that Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was sporting at the launch of Hong Kong’s tourism campaign, it struck me how passive and downright bland the slogan was. “Hello Hong Kong” does little to conjure up the spirit of this place and its people. I hope, for the sake of the battered tourism sector, that the free air tickets prove more motivational than the slogan.
My first impression of Hong Kong was that it was anything but bland. Just arriving in the city in the early 1990s could make you break out in a cold sweat. The flight approach at the old airport required the pilot to make a last-minute turn at about 600 feet as “Checkerboard Hill” loomed ahead.
For me, it was a memorable introduction: an unexpected thrill, accompanied by just a whiff of danger.
In the decades since I first arrived, the real Hong Kong has continued to reveal itself. I know it now as a place animated by its challenges. It rises time and again to meet them. If the past is any predictor of Hong Kong’s future, today’s problems, daunting though they seem, will be overcome.
And there is much to overcome. Few would disagree that recent years have been tough for Hong Kong.
The social unrest that culminated in the 2019 riots was followed by a wide-reaching national security law, ongoing prosecutions and sweeping electoral changes. The long-term impact of these events is still hard to predict.
Robin Hibberd is a financial services executive and long-time resident of Hong Kong. He is a former president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.
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