Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer, with a degree in physics, before two degrees in theology, and a PhD in philosophy. He’s written books covering subjects from friendship and belief, to wellbeing and love.

His next book, A Secret History of Christianity, is published at the end of August by John Hunt publishing .

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It’s worth paying attention to what’s been

happening in Hong Kong.

In case you don’t know, Hong Kong was a

tiny British colony, it’s one of the most densely populated places in the world,

even though still keeps some rural areas; it crams its people into a city that

uses every square centimeter to the utmost.

In 1898, Britain obtained a 99-year lease on

what’s called the New Territories, and those of you who are quick at math will

have worked out that in 1997, they had to hand the territory back to the

by-then-communist China.

But Hong Kong was a roaring capitalist

success story, and China didn’t want to go killing any golden-egg-laying geese,

so Deng Xiaoping agreed a form of government called one country, two

systems. Basically, that meant that China would remain a communist

dictatorship, Hong Kong would remain a mostly-democratic and totally capitalist

territory, with a strong independent judiciary, even though Beijing would have

ultimate sovereignty.

Don’t get starry-eyed about this, many of

the elected officials know that they can take democratic principles so far and

no further. The rule of law is much stronger and politics and the media are

much, much freer in Hong Kong than in China, but that freedom is tempered in

part by a knowledge that if they exercise it too much, it might not last.

One example was the case of the staff of

Causeway Bay Books; this was a Hong Kong bookstore that sold books about

mainland Chinese politics which would be strictly ba...