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Letters | China already has Hong Kong, why push Shenzhen as global financial centre?
- Hong Kong, even in its diminished state, is a ready-made golden goose for China, with its internationally trusted legal and banking infrastructure, technocratic skills and currency. Why bother with Shenzhen?
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Over the past week or so, your paper has been touting ad infinitum Shenzhen as China’s “go to” place, as the future centre of regional and international financial services, artificial intelligence development, and other future hi-tech industries.
One must seriously wonder why Shenzhen is being promoted as a centre of financial services for the Greater Bay Area and the world when Hong Kong already has all the necessary infrastructure and more, plus technocratic skills galore. More to the point, Hong Kong has an internationally well-respected and trusted legal structure with much precedent law.
Hong Kong has its own currency, about which I have written previously, as a serious candidate as a world reserve currency whereas the yuan is not even in the same league as the Hong Kong dollar. The possibility of the yuan as a world reserve currency suffers from the same issue as much of what else ails China – a serious lack of trust.
05:25
Hong Kong's competitive edge questioned as Xi says Shenzhen is engine of China’s Greater Bay Area
Hong Kong's competitive edge questioned as Xi says Shenzhen is engine of China’s Greater Bay Area
The recent past: Hong Kong was diminished by the rioting, with which I totally disagreed, though I supported the peaceful protests. The concomitant abject failure of the local leadership to handle the problems created made matters worse. Independence from China? Forget it. Hong Kong is part of China. End of story.
But what kind of a “part of China” will Hong Kong be? It does not seem so difficult to see Hong Kong as a ready-made golden goose for China, but Mr Xi Jinping and the Communist Party must be prepared to think outside the box. Fact: Hong Kong, even in its present diminished state, can still punch way above its weight unless China deconstructs it.
Stuart R. McCarthy, Causeway Bay
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