In January of 1993, an ambitious Chinese Communist Party boss, a 39-year-old official with chubby cheeks and a mop of black hair, visited Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s most famous tycoon, Li Ka-shing, known locally as “superman” for his business acumen, had come to town.
During those days, in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown,
Beijing was desperate to
fire up a languishing economy.