The Hong Kong Thrill Is Gone Too

This blog's Christmas message reflected on what has happened to Hong Kong over the last couple of years. That subject dovetails well with my most recent blog post, The China Thrill Is Gone. In that post, I described how Xi Jinping's rise to power coincided with growing pessimism on my part regarding China's future, eventually leading me to leave the Mainland for Hong Kong. And then, as I said in the post, they came for Hong Kong.

For most of my time living in Hong Kong (over three different time periods), I led what can be properly described as a crossborder life. Visits to Shenzhen and Guangzhou were about as normal as treks out to the Hong Kong Customs warehouse in Chai Wan or to a client's office in Quarry Bay. After all, from my Kowloon apartment, it took about the same amount of time to reach the border as it did to reach those places. RMB and HKD notes coexisted in my wallet and dual SIM cards were an important feature on cell phones. But as disillusionment