{"id":129213,"date":"2024-03-25T09:05:13","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T07:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/are-hong-kongs-days-as-a-global-business-hub-over\/"},"modified":"2024-03-25T09:05:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T07:05:13","slug":"are-hong-kongs-days-as-a-global-business-hub-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/are-hong-kongs-days-as-a-global-business-hub-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Hong Kong\u2019s days as a global business hub over?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button \" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129213\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>Hong Kong&#8217;s future as an a global finance hub is in doubt following a tough new security law. There is a new running joke in Hong Kong: locals mock their city for losing its status as the darling of global capital. As one joked, it is the newest UNESCO world heritage site. A tough security law &#8211; Article 23 &#8211; that came into effect over the weekend has only renewed the underlying concerns. Authorities say it will protect the city and ensure stability, while critics are alarmed it will silence all dissent with its closed-door trials and life sentences for broadly-defined offences &#8211; from insurrection to treason.<\/p>\n<p>It comes at a time when Beijing&#8217;s iron grip and US-China tensions were already driving away foreign investors who now have an &#8220;anywhere but China&#8221; policy, says Mr Chan, a real estate surveyor, who did not wish to disclose his full name. &#8220;Hong Kong was seen as distinct from China so investors could still invest here &#8211; not anymore now,&#8221; he says. The emphasis on national security and the danger posed by &#8220;foreign forces&#8221; &#8211; a running theme in the legislation and in Beijing&#8217;s recent policies &#8211; raises the stakes for foreign capital and businesses operating in the city. &#8220;The business has been awful in the past two years and there was no major deal at all,&#8221; says Mr Tse, who works for a Chinese state-owned bank. He said his company fired 10% of their staff in June and another 5% just this past week. &#8220;No one knows when it will be their turn.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While it is too early to evaluate the risks of Article 23 to businesses, it could lead to higher compliance costs because of its &#8220;broad wording&#8221; and the &#8220;severe consequences of a breach&#8221;, says Johannes Hack, the president of the German Chamber of Commerce. The Hong Kong government told the BBC in a statement that Article 23 will make the city &#8220;advance from stability to prosperity&#8221;, and will not affect &#8220;normal&#8221; businesses. It also said it is &#8220;outrageous&#8221; to single out Hong Kong when other countries have security laws too.<\/p>\n<p>Beijing imposed the national security law in 2020 after unprecedented protests a year earlier. Hong Kong&#8217;s Article 23, which expands on national security legislation imposed by China in 2020, comes at a time when the city&#8217;s administration is trying to reassure the world that it&#8217;s still a financial dynamo.<\/p>\n<p>The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce argued it &#8220;will make Hong Kong a safer destination for local and foreign businesses and professionals operating&#8221; in the city, while Hong Kong&#8217;s chief executive John Lee had dismissed as &#8220;ridiculous&#8221; the notion that the administration only cared about national security, calling such concerns a form of &#8220;soft resistance&#8221;. Hong Kong&#8217;s economy has been reeling from Beijing&#8217;s crackdown since the pro-democracy protests in 2019 and a harsh zero-Covid policy. Rentals for commercial and retail spaces have fallen, leaving office buildings and shopfronts vacant. There are fewer tourists &#8211; last year&#8217;s arrivals were only 60% of the pre-pandemic figure.<\/p>\n<p>The value of the Hang Seng index &#8211; Hong Kong&#8217;s crown jewel &#8211; has fallen by more than 40% since 2019. India overtook it in January to become the world&#8217;s fourth-largest stock market. Singapore has emerged as a stiff regional rival for finance. Global banks have been laying off people focused on Hong Kong and China, pointing to sluggish growth and plummeting investor confidence. An exodus of capital and people has followed, with the former head of Morgan Stanley Asia declaring recently in a newspaper column that &#8220;Hong Kong is over&#8221;. Veteran investor Lam Yat-ming wrote in an economic magazine that investors should &#8220;cherish their lives and distance themselves from Hong Kong stocks&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Outside perception of Hong Kong&#8221; has changed, Mr Hack says. &#8220;While the city is still distinctly different from the mainland, the focus on security may increasingly blur the distinction in people&#8217;s minds.&#8221; The former British colony has been run under the principle of &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; since its return to China in 1997. Beijing promised that Hong Kong would enjoy civil liberties for half a century.<\/p>\n<p>But critics say it has reneged on the deal, crushing pro-democracy protests and imposing a national security law (NSL) in 2020 under which more than 260 people, including former lawmakers, have been arrested. Authorities defend it, saying it marked the transition from &#8220;chaos to governance&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A local security law, outlined in the city&#8217;s mini constitution, was always on the cards. The first attempt in 2003 failed after half a million people took to the streets against it. This time, Article 23 was passed less than two weeks after it was tabled. Under Xi Jinping, China attaches &#8220;absolute importance&#8221; to national security &#8211; and Hong Kong&#8217;s status as a free society and an international gateway comes second, says Kenneth Chan, a political scientist at Hong Kong Baptist University.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-68636561\">Read more &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-68636561\">BBC<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/vaufien\/are-hong-kongs-days-as-a-global-business-hub-over\/\">Are Hong Kong\u2019s days as a global business hub over?<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[345,757,1905,606,607,608],"class_list":["post-129213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-business","tag-global","tag-hong-kong","tag-vau_viikkokatsaus","tag-vauen","tag-vaufien"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}