Hong Kongers in US Lament Changes to Island Since 1997

LOS ANGELES - From the outside, skyscrapers still loom over Hong Kong as a reflection of the bustling global financial center of Asia. Within the city, however, much has changed since 1997. July 1 marks the 24th anniversary of the moment Hong Kong reverted from a British colony back to Chinese rule. 

Changes to the financial hub were gradual at first, governed under the idea of “one country, two systems.”   Hong Kong native Anna Cheung still keeps the newspaper with the handover on the front page.   “It was like a landmark time at that moment,” remembered Cheung, a biology professor and pro-democracy activist now living in the United States. She said some Hong Kongers in the ’90s were hopeful “that maybe it is a good chance for Hong Kong to belong to China now and bring back the democratic value and all of the universal value[s] back to China.”