2. Both of you are making circular arguments. I point out that Hong Kong is more prosperous because of a free economy and international trade rather than government control as in Kenya (which has far greater natural resources), and the argument is that you can't compare a place with international trade to one without it???
3. I never said that Kenya and HK were "exactly the same place"--merely that they had similar economic outlooks when they gained independence. The basis for prosperity in HK is trade and a relatively free economy; the basis for lack thereof in Kenya is a controlled economy and poor governance.
Mainland China develops very fast with Communist government in charge. The main difference between Kenya and HK is between tribal Africans who got contacts with civilization in XIX century and Chinese who have thousands years of high civilization.
In addition HK was the key center for British trade for more than hundred years (starting with being center of forced opium imports to mainland China).
BTW, British introduced democracy in HK at the last moment before transferring control to China. Somehow Brits did not like democracy in HK before.