Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee's column ("HK's places in a family of 1.3b", December 9) seems to have missed the essential motive which underpins the concept of "one country, two systems".
China began to negotiate with Britain on Hong Kong's reversion to China shortly after it emerged from the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. Deng Xiaoping decided to keep Hong Kong's system intact not as an act of indulgence to five million Hongkongers who would have preferred not to live in a socialist system. He knew that China must eschew its failed system and the only way to salvage the country from further ruination was to open up and reform.
Hong Kong, which had been capitalism's poster child, presented a credible, albeit imperfect, free-market template for China and for almost two decades our city served the mainland as a gateway for increasing exports, attracting foreign investments and raising capital.
The preservation of city's separate system was to benefit the nation.
Almost 30 years have passed since the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the reality on the ground has changed dramatically.
Deng's economic experiment has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest imagination and China has become the second-largest economy in the world.