It does not take the mind of a criminal genius to imagine a terrorist strike on Hong Kong.
Naval vessels, including those from the United States, are not secured in bases but anchor in the middle of the world's busiest port while their sailors openly enjoy their liberty in local bars. Then there are the thrusting steel-and-glass totems of global capitalism rising from the congested streets. Add extensive air links, easy money movement and known smuggling routes for people and weapons, and fantasy can suddenly seem all too real.
Hong Kong may now be part of China, but to the disaffected and ignorant it may still look like an Asian beach-head of British and American imperialism.
Accustomed though the region may be to domestic upheaval, it is nonetheless no mere platitude to state that the weekend's bloodshed in Bali sounded a wake-up call to its leaders and citizens alike. As East Asia's biggest financial centre, Hong Kong cannot be anything but alarmed.
Police Commissioner Tsang Yam-pui yesterday promised a security review across the SAR in light of the Bali bombings. Only the most extensive, probing and creative study will suffice. Any residual complacency must be cast aside, any hasty, emotionally driven response spurned.
The need to protect Hong Kong's cherished freedoms and rights must obviously underpin any review. Yet Saturday night's tragedy undoubtedly adds another dimension to the debate. Unnecessary risk and cavalier security arrangements can carry their own threats to individual freedom. And there can be few more powerful images of such liberty than a group of young tourists dancing a Saturday night away on what for many was a first trip abroad.
It is too early to tell whether the review that Mr Tsang has proposed will go far enough. Certainly, he appeared in no mood to exaggerate the threat yesterday.
