20240402 HK and Xi

Global investors are trying to puzzle out what President Xi Jinping puts first, his regime's security or economic growth. Hong Kong's recent history offers a clue. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by Yusuke Hinata and Ken Kobayashi)

Analysis: Hong Kong's lost freedom shows Xi Jinping's priorities

Causeway Bay Books incident was a harbinger of regime's security-first principle

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize.

Is China heading toward a more open economy? Or does it want to prioritize national security? This is probably the most difficult conundrum global investors face when considering today's China.

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