City of dreams

A radical plan for helping poor countries: take a patch of their land, add a stable government, and watch what happens.

(Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images) The dramatic growth of Hong Kong is seen as a model for the charter cities concept.

By Drake Bennett

Globe Staff / September 6, 2009

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In 1842, on a British warship anchored off the city of Nanjing, Chinese and British representatives signed a treaty that brought the First Opium War to an end. The British victory had been decisive, and along with the reparations and trade concessions exacted from China was the requirement that Hong Kong, a coastal island sparsely populated by farmers, fishermen, and ... (Full article: 2139 words)