In short, government must shrink from the economy. Do this much and capital will find its productive match. But do nothing except pump-prime, and the future's in the past decade. Arrival cards are simple, applications for work permits painless. But the arrest of a young woman last year on suspicions of carrying a fake passport reveals a side of immigration, and law enforcement generally, that hardly fits Hong Kong's claim to first-world status.
Overzealous officials imperil the liberty of innocents.
Lin Qiaoying, then aged 16, was arrested at the airport on transit from the mainland to the United States. Miss Lin, a U.S. permanent resident, was accused of travelling on a fake passport and then allegedly pressured into pleading guilty. Besides Miss Lin, a Taiwanese businessman was similarly arrested enroute from the mainland to Taiwan, where his wife was on her deathbed. He didn't manage to reach her before she died. To add to the insult, reports are that he was again held by immigration when he returned to finish sorting out its earlier mistake.