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> This was shortly after the end of the cold war, after all, which demonstrated that such change is possible, if not inevitable.

In 1997 most people wouldn't have thought it would be possible (or at least likely) for China to both be such a powerful country and be such an authoritarian country.

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China also wouldn’t have taken this step if a certain other world power hadn’t gone AWOL the last few years.

There’s a reason they decided to ratchet up the pressure on HK the last few years. They figured that in the worst case slapping a specific brand on a few hotels in a few major Chinese cities is a cheap price to pay.

> They figured that in the worst case slapping a specific brand on a few hotels in a few major Chinese cities is a cheap price to pay.

Did they do that?

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