Hong Kong used to be Queen's brightest pearl on her crown.  I don't know where such an appellation came from, or it had been just an overly-flaunted aggrandisement by people of Hong Kong themselves.  Anyway, it doesn't matter any more because the island has been no longer a British colony and its importance as the only free harbor in China is waning, despite the support from pampering Mainland China. 

HK was just a small viliage for fishermen, hanging in the fringe of Southern China when it was conceded to British Empire  after Opium War in 1842. Almost all of the inhabitants on the island are posterity off later immigrants from Mainland, including the diaspora from Nationalist China after 1949(My families and I were among those people of "semi-declasse"; luckily we were later accepted by Taiwan).  Before 1949, it could hardly compete with Shanghai; after that it became the only channel or entrance for international trading between China and other countries due to the economic blockade imposed upon China which was led by US, and the isolation policy adopted by Mainland; thus, the island thrived from such an unique status.  In the tiny, densely-populated, and relatively rich island, people of Hong Kong have cultivated a bourgeois, seek-for-profit-only mindset, and a condescending attitude over other Chineses.

Now China opens and rises, wider and faster than anyone could have ever expected.  Actually, I believe now Mainland can be just doing great without any "contribution" from Hong Kong(or from Taiwan as well) any longer.  But for face-saving reason, Mainland would continue to maintain the prosperity of the island for sure.  Get real, islanders, you are not a pearl any more.  All you have to do is doing the best you can, also under the auspices of Mainland, to compete with other cities of China.  Otherwise, eventually you'll be marginalized.