Peter Guy

Opinion | Hong Kong has enough freedom to do business, and that’s what counts ultimately

China may be the centre of Chinese capitalism but Hong Kong is where the banking occurs. Historically, emerging economic superpowers need to maintain onshore and offshore financial centres. For Beijing, this may be Hong Kong’s only tangible value.

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Pedestrians walk past an HSBC bank branch in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: Bloomberg

Peter Guy

Published: 11:00am, 13 Mar 2019Updated: 11:11am, 13 Mar 2019

Hand-wringing over the inevitable demise of Hong Kong’s freedoms and rule of law ignores the fact that you have enough freedom – to do business. And that’s all you really need because Hong Kong has been and always will be, primarily, a place for making money.

Hong Kong’s political and economic conflict originates from a historic anomaly: being run as a free and liberal society by a relatively unrepresentative government. No other place has survived such a contradictory state. You either end up being run undemocratically or becoming a democratic city like New York or London.

So it was only a matter of time before China dealt with Hong Kong’s political paradox by redrawing the line and nixing certain freedoms, like espousing separatism. It was about time because Hong Kong cannot be sustained without the mainland’s support and approval.

More than 20 years in, three administrations have struggled to solve livelihood problems such as housing supply and economic transformation. Hong Kong remains plagued by the tyranny of monopolies, a widening wealth gap and exorbitant living costs. Monopolistic menaces have neither the will nor inclination to protect society against the consequences of their actions. Hong Kong has become one of the world’s richest cities populated by impoverished people.

One result is that graduates have been unable to benefit from opportunities on the mainland. Few employers are willing to pay a premium for Hong Kong graduates who expect a higher standard of living. Few graduates are willing to take the risk of moving north and seeking work and opportunities without any family support. And few speak or write Mandarin fluently enough and understand enough about Chinese culture to find employment on the mainland.