Hong Kong has not died - but neither has the legacy of the Fortune magazine obituary published on June 26, 1995.
'The naked truth about Hong Kong's future can be summed up in two words: it's over,' the article said. The territory's role as a 'vibrant international commercial and financial hub' was 'indisputably dying'.
The magazine was flooded with letters in response to the article, including one from Asian business strategist William Overholt, who claimed it was full of 'the hoariest myths about Hong Kong'.
Then mainland vice-premier Zhu Rongji discussed the story in private meetings with Hong Kong businessmen.
Local commentators tut-tutted over the magazine's fickle judgments, with the obituary coming only seven months after the magazine named Hong Kong the best city in the world in which to do business.
And when, four months later, Fortune denied it had 'implied that Hong Kong will disappear as a key economic centre', one writer described it as the biggest turnaround since Napoleon reached the gates of Moscow before starting back for France.
