Hong Kong Is Overdue for an Economic Makeover
The city has reinvented itself many times. It may need to do so again.
This one needs to start with the foundation.
Photographer: Dale de la Rey/AFP/Getty Images
Hong Kong has reinvented itself repeatedly through its 177-year history as a British colony and later a special administrative region of China, from farming and fishing community to trading post, and from manufacturing hub to financial center. Another makeover is overdue.
After six months of anti-government protests, the economy is in technical recession and will contract by 1.2% this year, the International Monetary Fund estimates. Business activity has slumped and the value of retail sales plunged a record 24.3% in October from a year earlier. Tourism, listed by the government as one of Hong Kong’s four “key” industries, is reeling, with visitor arrivals tumbling 44% in October from the same month in 2018.