TO A VISITOR from messy Mumbai, on the surface Hong Kong seems, despite months of anti-government protests, in order. Busy shops, clean streets, trains that run on time—or at all. clp, the u8-year-old electric utility, has just moved from its old headquarters in Kowloon to a new one over a shopping mall (inevitably) . Both digs are (inevitably) to be redeveloped. Business as usual, then? Not quite. Two French bakeries that popped up after your correspondent left in 20u, to ride Hong Kong's surge as Europe flailed, have shut. The owners felt the tide had turned. A recent graduate from Canada, who grew up in the territory, notes how hard it is to get a job. Hong Kong is in recession (see chart). Hiring has slowed, particularly by confused multinationals. People, he says, are leaving. Millennials with work offers elsewhere are not returning. It is, many reckon, worse than the sars epidemic in 2003. Back then Hong Kongers were united. Now they seem deeply divided. Arguments flare up far from the riots.
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