The story of Hong Kong and the rise of China in an era of globalisation, authoritarian power and democratic defiance. The recent protests and crackdown in Hong Kong shook the world. A prosperous city with its freedoms enshrined by international treaties and conventions, Hong Kong is a unique part of the People's Republic of China. Its passage from a British colony to Chinese rule was a joint diplomaticaccomplishment. But since then its people have struggled for democracy against dictatorship. In The Gate and the Wall, Michael Sheridan, who served for two decades as a foreign correspondent in Asia, provides a vivid modern history of Hong Kong from China's break with Maoism in 1977-its first steptowards economic superpower status - to the present. Hong Kong stood astride two of the most important events in modern world history; the rise of China and the economic transformation of East Asia. Its great port and Chinese culture made it the natural gateway for China to reach a wider world after decades of self-imposed isolation. The drama of HongKong unfolds in rhythm with a new global economic order, which we trace from its origins in southern China to Beijing's accession to the World Trade Organization and beyond. Despite the symbiosis, it was an uneasy partnership. By the time the British left, Hong Kong had westernized in importantways, particularly in its politics. That set it upon repeated collision courses with a revived authoritarian China, determined to absorb the city into its own system. Sheridan draws new insights from Chinese archives and memoirs as well as the papers of well-known British leaders - Margaret Thatcher and the last governor, Chris Patten - whose actions forged Hong Kong's destiny. He gives a voice to Hong Kong's people: its leaders, its tycoons, its hard-workingfamilies, and the young generation who made the fight for freedom a cause that resounds far beyond the South China Sea. More broadly, The Gate and the Wall illuminates how economic globalization and the competing trends of democracy and dictatorship are shaping one of the world's most importantregions. | The Gate And The Wall by Michael Sheridan, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters