Word: kong
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Cheah Cheng hye's life is a rags-to-riches saga with an Asian twist. As a boy in Malaysia, Cheah sold pineapples by the roadside to support himself after his father died. Years later, Cheah left behind a career in journalism to start Value Partners, now Hong Kong's most successful independent investment-fund firm, with $7.2 billion under management...
...periphery. Sometimes things go well for Beijing: in Taiwan, the party of pro-independence president Chen Shui-bian was handed a devastating defeat in Jan. 12 parliamentary elections, clearing the way for a more conciliatory relationship with the island China considers a renegade province. But in Hong Kong that same weekend, thousands protested against Beijing's timetable for democratization in the territory, which last month ruled out the possibility of direct elections in 2012 in favor of a vague promise to consider them in 2017 and 2020. Pro-democracy activists, impatient with the pace of reform and skeptical of Beijing...
...reality, though, 2017 is pretty much the only way. While the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, holds full democracy as its "ultimate aim", the mainland has the last word on its interpretation, leading some observers to see Sunday's march as quixotic at best. Ma Ngok, a political analyst at Chinese University of Hong Kong, says that even if the mainland could be budged by mass popular protests, efforts to get the people out in large enough numbers "won't work because people have been much more pacified in recent years." Some 72% of Hong Kongers find Beijing...
...kidding. Hong Kong's economy has been on a tear lately: bolstered by a booming mainland and the Hong Kong dollar's peg to a weakening U.S. currency, the Hang Seng Index gained 39% in 2007. A recent survey by TNS and Gallup International showed that Hong Kong people are the most optimistic in the world on the general outlook for 2008, with 71% expecting the coming year to be better than the last. All that prosperity is causing headaches for Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp, who are finding it harder to make their cause relevant. In November...
...everyone is so sure. "Politically you can say that we will continue to fight for 2012," says Professor Ma, "but most HK people know that it is not possible to fight on in this regard against Beijing." Still, organizer Lee Cheuk Yan, a legislator from the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, points out that the rally was also intended to send a clear signal to Beijing that the relatively small number of demonstrators on the streets could drastically swell if the mainland reneged on its timetable promises. The next battle is to make sure that the electoral systems necessary...