ON THE OBSERVATION deck atop the Diwang building in Shenzhen you can see two large wax figures depicting Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher enjoying cups of tea. The two leaders negotiated the handover of Hong Kong to China, which eventually took place in 1997. At the time, Mrs Thatcher was criticised by some at home for relinquishing the empire's last great colony to the communists (Prince Charles reportedly described China's leaders as "appalling old waxworks"). The more obvious worry was that Hong Kong's rule of law and its free-market economy would be crushed by the hard men in Beijing.
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