It’s a city-state of seven million people, with skyscrapers wrapped around a picturesque harbor and an in-your-face brand of capitalism. But it wasn’t long ago that economic obituaries were being written about Hong Kong: A June 1995 story in Fortune magazine was titled, not-too-subtly, “The Death of Hong Kong.” As the reasoning went, Hong Kong would fade in economic dynamism when the British lease expired and the island reverted to Communist control in June 1997. Under an agreement between Margaret Thatcher’s government and China, Beijing vowed to give Hong Kong substantial freedoms, except in foreign and defense affairs, until 2047 — 50 years after the handover. Observers doubted the hands-off promise, fearing that Hong Kong would become “a captive colony of Beijing … just another mainland city, governed by corruption and political connections rather than the even-handed rule of law,” as the Fortune piece stated. At the same time, Beijing’s patronage shifted to Shanghai, the gateway to China’s interior.…