Opinion | Hong Kong can not only survive, but thrive in the US-China rivalry

From the trade war to the aftermath of the 2019 protests that led to international portrayals of Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland as indistinguishably one and the same, the city has been battered by daunting geopolitical headwinds in the eight years since Donald Trump’s fateful election as US president.

With bipartisan antipathy towards China in Washington and the Republican presidential front runner surrounded by a trenchant circle of China hawks as advisers – including his vice-presidential pick, Hong Kong must brace itself for a protracted period of embittered rivalry. I concur with political scientist Li Cheng. We could well be facing 10 to 15 more years of mutual antagonism.

Yet, there remains a silver lining. If we play our cards right, Hong Kong could well capitalise upon the unfortunate trend by optimising the possible upsides while minimising the downsides. We can escape the fate of being “kicked around” like a “football”, as renowned diplomat Kishore Mahbubani put it.

First, Hong Kong must position itself as the primary destination for ethnic Chinese professionals leaving the West amid escalating tensions and the increasing politicisation of higher education. A Stanford University study found that after the introduction of the China Initiative in 2018, the number of departures in China-born, US-based scientists increased by 75 per cent.

Trans-Pacific scientific research and collaboration – especially in sensitive or strategic technological sectors such as semiconductors, biotechnology and quantum computing – has become much more difficult, as insidious speculation creeps into both public and private discourses concerning Chinese scientists.