Editorial | Strict financial control by Beijing spells more opportunities for Hong Kong
- As crucial meeting makes it clear China’s regulatory regime will only become tighter, the city stands to feel the benefit as being a bridge with the West
China’s central financial work conference convenes just twice in a decade to lay down future direction. Its importance cannot be overstated.
The two-day meeting just ended in Beijing is a landmark example. Nowhere in the official government account is there a mention of market reform, signalling a change of direction compared with the first three decades of China’s opening-up.
That is not to say China will go back to the pre-reform era but, instead, the focus is on strengthening financial risk management.
President Xi Jinping said this must be an “eternal theme”. The official statement referred to “chaos and corruption in the financial sector and poor quality financial services ill-matched to the real economy”.
China is still trying to defuse the property and local debt crisis. Externally the environment has never been so complex and hostile.