Beijing calls Hong Kong into line: You're with us or against us

Beijing's zero-sum loyalty trap loses a profitable Hong Kong. Can the new chief make a difference?

Twenty years after the handover from Britain to China, the fate of Hong Kong continues to be measured by a yardstick that many would find risible were it not for the raw emotion it arouses and the hardening of polarised politics.

At the heart of this feckless debate is whether Hongkongers are pro- or anti-Beijing. This banal and irrelevant discussion has seemingly derailed sensible discourse on pressing issues like the usurious price of housing, education drift, caring for the elderly, health care, the dismal state of exports, and flagging private consumption.

The promise of the Year of the Fire Rooster appears elusive