Opinion | Capitalist greed is good: can Hong Kong reinvent its economic miracle?
- Many long-time residents will say the city has lost much of its can-do hunger and ingenuity, where anything was possible at the right price
- Hong Kong’s leaders must earn the people’s trust again as it is the one commodity in the equation that cannot be willed into being by any emergency decree
Famous as the entrepot for trade with China and later a safe avenue for foreign investment, Hong Kong has long had another export up its sleeve that is rarely spoken of in polite company: capitalist greed.
It is interesting that this gamble, which paid rich dividends for China, failed to secure the freewheeling future of one of its prime architects. The thinking was that, over time, Hong Kong would reshape China in its own mould. China feared the city’s rapacious capitalism as much as it coveted the rewards of the process, later refashioned with socialist characteristics.
With rapid development, rising GDP and growing wealth, China rebuilt trust in the Communist Party. This enabled a fraying social contract – woven with the people’s unquestioning faith – to stay securely in place.
The party rapidly improved the people’s lot and, in turn, no one questioned its omniscient, paternal motives. China did this with great success until it was hit by the Donald Trump tsunami, followed in quick succession by the Covid-19 cataclysm.
