Insight - What’s Hong Kong to China?

The good news is that, so far, there is no sign of capital flight. Hong Kong’s vast deposit base has remained stable. Investors are reassured by its US$440bil holdings of foreign reserves, and a long record of sound financial management.

BEIJING’S enactment of a tough new national security law for Hong Kong is raising concerns that it will sweep away much of the autonomy and freedom that underpin the territory’s role as Asia’s world city. Beijing did so in a bid to restore order to end “chaos” on the streets.

The new law aims to protect national security, and gives Beijing authority to fight crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion, with severe penalties.

Critics, however, have been highly hypocritical, adopting double standards. For years, the United States has strengthened its own security laws, the latest being the Patriot Act, 2001 against terrorist attacks.