With the passing of Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong bids farewell to the man who first stood at the threshold between its colonial past and its future under Chinese sovereignty. Honored with a state funeral in September 2026, Tung — who served as the territory's inaugural chief executive from 1997 to 2005 — embodied the promises and tensions of the 'one country, two systems' arrangement that was meant to preserve Hong Kong's distinct identity for half a century. His death arrives at a moment when that arrangement itself has become the subject of deep historical reckoning, inviting a city still divide