Jake's View | Free-trade Shanghai will trigger brief tsunami of cash flowing out, that's all

Beijing's landmark plan to create a Hong Kong-like free trade zone in Shanghai - the mainland's biggest economic experiment since the creation of Shenzen, its pioneering special economic zone - has sparked a debate over whether it would lead to the twilight of Hong Kong.

I don't know that I would choose the imagery of twilight for this threat - it implies a slow, steady darkening, a calm and inevitable decline.

What I have in mind is more sudden shock and horror on the faces of people everywhere in this town as they feel a deep rumble under their feet and turn north to see a mountainous tsunami of cash rolling down from the border and bowling them over.

Let's say Premier Li Keqiang really does open a free yuan zone in Shanghai, a district where every financial concern registered as having an official presence can exchange yuan for foreign currencies in any amount it chooses and at any exchange rate it chooses.

Of course it may be less than this. We may have only three or four mainland banks setting up shop in this district and under orders not to transact more than a token amount each day on pain of Beijing's great displeasure. This would not be a yuan free zone, more an early opening of Shanghai Disney.