Opinion | Can Beijing and Big Business Trump-proof Hong Kong?

US president-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Vice-President Kamala Harris, the Republican Party’s control of Congress and strong backing from his appointees on the US Supreme Court will make him the most powerful US president in recent history.

He is coming into office with the unreserved support of the world’s richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – tech mogul Elon Musk – who has just been named to lead a new department of efficiency. The massive power Trump now wields has sent shock waves across the US and around the world.

Although Beijing took care not to drop any hint of its preference, a triumphant Trump return and all that it means for the future of Sino-US relations appeared to have been within China’s calculations.

On November 8, Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong and Macau Affairs Office, convened a meeting with 29 Hong Kong business and industrial leaders, in addition to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and other senior officials, in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. The timing seems to have been carefully chosen to take stock of the US election results.

Trump unleashed more tremors by announcing the appointment of a motley crew of hardliners and acolytes to important cabinet and ambassadorial positions. When news broke that Trump was mulling the appointment of prominent China hawks, Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Michael Waltz, to the positions of secretary of state and national security adviser respectively, the Hang Seng Index plunged 580 points.

Rubio sponsored the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019. This landmark statute requires US government departments to assess Hong Kong’s political developments as a precondition for continuing the city’s unique status under US law. The act laid the groundwork for stripping Hong Kong of special treatment in the US and imposing sanctions on the city.