His audience of about 300 people included at least one senior official from the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong and Regina Ip, convener of the city leader’s Executive Council. Cheah argued that geopolitical conditions had turned favorable for Hong Kong to reconsider reforms that had previously stoked public unrest. Hong Kong can start from the 2014 proposal that was “not Western-style democracy but a hybrid version,” Cheah said. Cheah is one of very few business people willing to point out that the lack of representative government in Hong Kong is a problem. (Whatever happened to Cheah’s interesting sidekick at Value Partners V-Nee Yeh, a former Marxist who would eat only once a day to save time?)