Taiwan in the spotlight and CATL's subsidy haul

Hello, this is Kenji in Hong Kong.

The mass candlelight vigil held on June 4 to commemorate those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown used to be one of the most popular annual events in the city. Despite the topic being taboo on the mainland, the vigil was allowed to continue even after the U.K. handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. This was viewed as a symbol of the city's freedom and a sign of the "one country, two systems" arrangement in action.

But the imposition of a national security law four years ago and comprehensive national security ordinance enacted this year have seen the center of commemorations clearly shift to Taiwan.

What many people may not remember is that "one country, two systems" -- which China had promised to maintain in Hong Kong until 2047 -- was originally devised by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 as a plan for the unification of Taiwan.

Taiwan flatly rejected the idea, though it was not quite as far-fetched at the time as it might seem today. Both sides of the strait were governed by authoritarian, one-party regimes, with Taiwan under martial law and China emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and embarking on reform and opening up.

Tiananmen was the pivotal moment. While Beijing crushed its student-led protest movement, Taipei responded peacefully to a similar incident the following year, paving the way for the island's transformation into a full-fledged democracy.

Since then, the trajectories of Hong Kong and Taiwan have continued to diverge, with the former moving closer to Beijing and losing much of its global hub status, while the latter has forged its own identity and become arguably Asia's most important tech economy.

That divergence was on full display this week. While major