Billionaire financier George Soros has praised the Hong Kong government for thwarting his attempts to undermine the local currency and stock market in 1998 but maintained he had every right to do so.
Mr Soros, criticised as being a predatory speculator whose highly profitable currency attacks in 1997 were blamed for destroying the Thai and Malaysian economies, credited the Hong Kong administration for intervening in the local stock and futures markets during the Asian financial crisis. But he remained unapologetic about his actions.
The financier made his comments to China Central Television while in Shanghai on Sunday to give a speech at Fudan University.
'They actually did a very good job defending the Hong Kong dollar, so they deserve credit. And my attack, if you call it that, was without success.
'I don't feel any sense of guilt ... There is nothing wrong about it. This is a point people have difficulty understanding because, in speculating in the financial markets, I do so according to the rules that prevail.'
Hungarian-born Mr Soros' actions in 1997 led to him being described as 'a villain and a moron' by Mahathir Mohamad, then prime minister of Malaysia.
Mr Soros' latest comments mirror those he made during a visit to Hong Kong in 2001, when he said local monetary authorities did 'a very good job when they intervened to arrest the collapse of the Hong Kong market' and that the subsequent damage to the government's laissez-faire reputation was worth it.