What are the challenges?
Hong Kong has endured much in the past two years, so it is not surprising that commentaries are being written about the impending death of Hong Kong. But as Mark Twain said of rumours of his own death, the death of Hong Kong is greatly exaggerated. The economic dynamo on China’s south coast has certainly suffered convulsions in the past two years. The anti-China protests paralysed the city for a while and the pandemic may have put its global hub at risk. More recently, China’s efforts to refashion the rambunctious city into a well-behaved model Chinese city has raised a fresh set of concerns.
Our view is that while it looks quite certain that Hong Kong’s unique character will change in ways that some observers will find sad, it is more than likely to remain one of the world’s pre-eminent hearts of commerce and finance — and give competitors such as Singapore a run for their money.
