I followed events in China closely during my early editorial cartooning days. When Hong Kong was handed over to mainland China in 1997, I didn’t have much hope that the freedoms its citizens previously had would survive the transition. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
“One country, two systems” was touted by Chinese advocates and offered as an assurance to foreign investors.
To convince the human rights skeptics, supporters of the handover used the argument that opening up the markets would lead to more freedoms overall and an eventual transition to democracy for all Chinese people.