Baptiste FALLEVOZ

In 1997, a century and a half of British rule in Hong Kong came to an end, as the island passed back under Chinese control. As a result, Hong Kong has benefited from the "one country, two systems" principle, whereby it is part of China but retains certain rights, such as freedom of speech. Yet some residents say they've noticed a marked difference in Beijing's attitude to the island in recent times and fear that their precious freedoms are being eroded.

China has deployed 7,000 technicians, funnelled off 14 billion cubic meters of water, dug thousands of wells and sent silver iodide into the air to cause rain. It's all in an attempts to stave off the extreme dry spell that's crippling the country's agricultural industry. There hasn't been any rain for 150 days, meaning it's China's worst drought for decades.

The Chinese, particularly the poor rural population, are notoriously bad consumers. What little money the do earn, they tend to hoard. It's bad news for a government desperately trying to distance itself from an export-driven economy and move to a more consumer-orientated one. In an effort to promote spending, government-backed subsidies on a range of goods are starting to encourage those who wouldn't normally splash out.