Opinion | Sadly, Hong Kong is just collateral damage in the US economic war against China

We watch your films in the cinema, your shows on TV, we listen to your music and sing your songs, we send our children to your colleges, we buy your goods, we visit your country as tourists. We take the family to Hong Kong Disneyland in the holidays. We like American products and services so much that on a per capita basis, we are probably the biggest consumers in Asia. Yet somehow, we seem to have rubbed you the wrong way.

This is partly, of course, a spillover from the economic war the US is waging on China; we are simply collateral damage. Because the blows have landed so frequently, we have become numb to just how many shots have been fired in this struggle.

America has a list of goods and services it will not buy from China, even if they are best in class and competitively priced. The list is not a comprehensive and final one: additions can be, and are, made to it.

There is a similar list of products and services that America has declared it will not sell to Chinese companies and individuals. These items would serve to boost the Chinese economy and improve the quality of life for ordinary people, but – the argument seems to be – would incidentally strengthen our country and make it too powerful, hence a threat to US interests.