https://www.scmp.com/rss/502374/feed Joshua M. Zimmerman is a former corporate lawyer who has advised on debt and equity financings throughout Asia. A Washington, DC native and Hong Kong resident since 1997, he joined the New York bar in 1997 and became a Hong Kong solicitor in 2011. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Late last week, two heavyweights issued nearly simultaneous warnings about the economic impact of China’s “zero-Covid” policy. “The Chinese economy at this moment is in the worst shape in the past 30 years,” said Shan Weijian, a storied Chinese private equity investor. Shan warned of a “deep economic crisis” that was “man-made”, the result of “draconian” pandemic policies. Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China and a 30-year Beijing resident, painted a similarly bleak... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3176492/restart-chinas-economy-reopening-hong-kong-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3176492/restart-chinas-economy-reopening-hong-kong-world?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 May 2022 22:45:15 +0000 Everybody is criticising Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her government’s Covid-19 performance: business leaders, the media, even Beijing loyalists. So it is hard to suppress the contrarian impulse to find ways of defending Hong Kong’s handling of this crisis. I am not going to pat the government on the back. But I will point out that there is plenty of blame to go around, much of the criticism is weak, and there may even be some hidden upside. Let’s start with the victims. If you... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3172609/hong-kongs-covid-crisis-why-its-easy-unfair-blame-carrie-lam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3172609/hong-kongs-covid-crisis-why-its-easy-unfair-blame-carrie-lam?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Apr 2022 22:45:08 +0000 The “dynamic zero Covid” versus “living with the virus” debate has been overtaken by events. Omicron is out in the wild, spreading in malls, trains, buses and lifts. The true number of infections is probably many times the confirmed cases and already outstripping the Hong Kong government’s ability to track, trace and isolate. Nevertheless, the government seems bent on deploying mainland-style Covid-19 strategies that no longer have any chance of working here. Say the government goes ahead with... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3167786/hong-kong-wont-win-covid-19-fight-blindly-following-mainland-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3167786/hong-kong-wont-win-covid-19-fight-blindly-following-mainland-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Feb 2022 01:45:09 +0000 As we enter the pandemic’s third year, you should know that most Covid-19 conventional wisdom is wrong and most coronavirus policies are dumb. The advent of vaccines has transformed Covid-19 from a medical disaster into a sociological disaster – a jumble of fear, confusion and bad politics. Here is all you need to know about Covid-19: first, globally available vaccines provide temporary antibody protection against infection; second, vaccines confer longer-lasting T cell protection against... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3161418/two-years-why-most-covid-19-conventional-wisdom-wrong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3161418/two-years-why-most-covid-19-conventional-wisdom-wrong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Dec 2021 22:45:11 +0000 Could the new Texas abortion law provide a road map for China’s anti-sanctions measures in Hong Kong? That’s not as far-fetched as it may seem. Texas recently enacted a law that allows private citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. The law probably violates the US Constitution, but instead of relying on Texas police and prosecutors, private citizens enforce the law. Using private lawsuits instead of government regulation to advance public... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3149439/how-chinas-anti-sanctions-law-hong-kong-can-take-leaf-texas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3149439/how-chinas-anti-sanctions-law-hong-kong-can-take-leaf-texas?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Sep 2021 19:30:26 +0000 With the US-China relationship growing more tense, Hong Kong finds itself caught between superpowers engaged in a game of tit-for-tat escalation. Businesses in Hong Kong are particularly concerned about pending US sanctions and whether they will threaten Hong Kong’s status as a global financial hub. The current state of play is as follows: on July 14, US President Donald Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which authorises targeted sanctions on officials and other “foreign persons”... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095337/all-bluster-donald-trumps-hong-kong-sanctions-may-not-amount-much?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095337/all-bluster-donald-trumps-hong-kong-sanctions-may-not-amount-much?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:30:13 +0000 The narrative in the international financial press is that Hong Kong’s new national security law will disrupt markets, could expose companies and their employees in Hong Kong to vague, politically motivated charges and may spark global sanctions and massive capital outflows, degrading Hong Kong’s status as an international financial hub. The law’s language is very broad, its reach global. A company’s business licence may be revoked and its funds confiscated, for example. There is scope for the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3092156/what-hong-kongs-national-security-law-makes-clear-politics-trumps?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3092156/what-hong-kongs-national-security-law-makes-clear-politics-trumps?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Jul 2020 19:00:08 +0000 Doctors and epidemiologists insist that we do not yet know much about Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease, which from a scientific standpoint is certainly true. But government leaders and policymakers do not have the luxury of waiting until all the facts can be gathered before making difficult decisions. Like poker players, they must weigh the risks in a game of incomplete information. But incomplete information is not no information: We know Covid-19 spreads rapidly, often... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075179/asia-has-gained-some-perspective-coronavirus-europe-and-us-should?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075179/asia-has-gained-some-perspective-coronavirus-europe-and-us-should?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Mar 2020 11:00:13 +0000 Views on the Hong Kong police tend to run black or white. To protesters, the police are brutal thugs who collude with triads, shoot live rounds at students and fire tear gas in residential neighbourhoods. To pro-establishment types, the police are Hong Kong’s last defence against anarchy, heroes who suit up for battle day after day to risk their lives for low wages while displaying superhuman forbearance under incredible stress.  A formal, independent review of police conduct would be... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3031444/hong-kong-protests-if-government-wont-agree-police-conduct-inquiry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3031444/hong-kong-protests-if-government-wont-agree-police-conduct-inquiry?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Oct 2019 03:00:07 +0000