In advance of the handover of Hong Kong to China, Fortune wrote a cover story for its international editions, "The Death of Hong Kong" (June 29, 1995), predicting that under Chinese rule Hong Kong would lose its role as an international commercial and financial hub.
It said that English would give way to Chinese, that the level playing field for business would go away and that corruption would take root and spread. "In fact," as we wrote, "the naked truth about Hong Kong's future can be summed up in two words: It's over."
Yet ten years after the handover on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong is far from over and hardly dead. What's clear is that economic concerns have won, and that-at least economically-China has left Hong Kong alone to thrive under its "one country, two systems" pledge.
And thrive it has.
Source: Fortune, http://money.cnn.com