Concerns over HK as financial centre remain premature

IT HAS been a difficult year for Hong Kong. A different city will emerge following the ushering in of the national security law. But concerns over its future status and role as a global financial hub are premature, as it enters a period of political and technological adjustment.

Over the past 12 months, Hong Kong has suffered civil unrest and record gross domestic product growth decline, but mainland China is the only major global economy expected to grow this year. And despite pro-democracy voices, Hong Kong's future lies inescapably in further integration with the mainland and specifically the Greater Bay Area - a region of southern China with a combined population of 70 million and a US$1.5 trillion economy, which is expected to reach US$3.6 trillion by 2030.

Democratic and human rights were major issues for Hong Kong long before its return to China in 1997. Hongkongers historically had limited control over their own destiny. However, there is a view that the new national security law is breaching Beijing's assurances in the basic law, Hong Kong's mini constitution, as well as China's international pledge to the "one country, two systems" governing framework. Yet this is no sudden about-face, and though Hong Kong may have been promised more than a spot on the "Ding Ding" (Hong Kong tram) in 1997, Beijing has stayed in the driving seat.