Stephen Roach is revising his declaration that Hong Kong is finished.
The former Morgan Stanley Asia chairman said the city is being reinvigorated by US-China tensions, something he didn’t anticipate when he penned a February 2024 column in the Financial Times entitled “It pains me to say Hong Kong is over.”
“What’s changed is, shockingly, the US-China conflict has gotten worse,” Roach, 79, said from his home in Connecticut. “And Hong Kong — rather than getting hammered in the cross fire as I expected and wrote — may be benefiting from that, because of its unique position as China’s most important window to international finance.”
The former British colony has seen a rush of funds into the stock market this year as Chinese companies race to secure capital amid the escalating battle for technological superiority between the two largest economies. The Hang Seng Index has rallied 16%, outpacing the S&P 500, which is little changed. Share listings have raised HK$77 billion ($9.9 billion) in Hong Kong this year through May, the most since 2021, led by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. — better known as CATL.
