Louis Kraar was most famous for his Fortune cover article in 1995 that predicted the demise of Hong Kong after it was given to the Chinese. He died of a heart attack in Manhattan last week at the age of 71, according to media reports.
On Sept. 10, 2001, Time magazine followed up on the article. You can read the Time article here.
Kraar wrote that all local officials would be monitored by hundreds of Chinese Communist Party functionaries, the city’s elected legislature would be replaced with appointed members, Beijing’s earlier pledges to maintain the city’s judicial independence would be brushed aside, and Hong Kong’s independent currency would be replaced with the yuan.
However, the 2001 Fortune Global Forum was again held in Hong Kong.
Kraar began his career as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in 1956, and first traveled to Asia in 1961 for that newspaper, accompanying President John F. Kennedy’s advisors General Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow on their mission to assess America’s growing involvement in Vietnam. After visiting Hong Kong and Tokyo on the same trip, he joined Time magazine later that year as its Pentagon correspondent with a promise that he would soon be assigned to Asia, and was the magazine’s bureau chief in New Delhi, Bangkok, and Singapore from 1963-1973.
Kraar joined Fortune magazine in 1973, and was from 1983-1988 based in Hong Kong as its Asia editor, interpreting for American and regional audiences the region’s dramatic economic and political developments.
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I am sorry to hear the news that he died before the "death of Hong Kong". I greatly respect his experience, however, his bald prediction proves that he analyzing ability has serious flaws.