Hong Kong’s still ‘over’ but Stephen Roach says city a surprise trade war winner

American economist Stephen Roach has said that Hong Kong has benefited from the US-China trade war despite last year having declared the city to be “over”, even as he claimed that other aspects of the financial hub had worsened.

“The word caught is the word that, if I had to write the piece again, I would probably change, because I think, ironically, Hong Kong has benefited from the crossfire between the US and China,” he told the Post in a recent interview.

Despite worsening ties between the two superpowers since US President Donald Trump began levying his so-called reciprocal tariffs on China and the rest of the world, Hong Kong’s stock market has seen solid gains.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index is up by around 50 per cent since Roach made his original claim, while Hong Kong has rocketed to the top of the global fundraising table following a string of high-profile initial public offerings last month, including from mainland Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology.

Roach, who is now a faculty member at Yale University, said the “sell America” trade had become a “global mantra” and Hong Kong was a beneficiary.