When Chinese agents abducted a bookseller critical of Beijing and a politically connected tycoon from semi-autonomous Hong Kong, many foreign investors said privately that they were thorns in Beijing’s side.
As the Hong Kong government ratcheted up the pressure on the city’s democracy movement, prosecuting activists, blocking opposition politicians from running in elections and banning a political party, investors said local politics did not affect business.
Corporate executives have looked the other way as Beijing has emphasised its “comprehensive jurisdiction” over Hong Kong, reversing the self-restraint that marked the early years of the “one country, two systems” arrangement, under which China granted the city a “high degree of autonomy” and civic freedoms for 50 years after the British handed it back in 1997.