The View | Why Hong Kong’s status as a global financial centre is perfectly safe and secure

Detractors inside and outside Hong Kong suggest that the current protests will undermine the city as China’s global financial centre. Their arguments run the gamut: political turmoil will hinder the operations of financial firms; China’s possible intervention will make it unfavourable for financial firms to function; China will deliberately dethrone Hong Kong and promote Shenzhen as its global financial centre.

The seriousness of the protests cannot be dismissed. For many participants and observers, turmoil in Hong Kong appears overwhelming. Some politicians in Europe and the United States go so far as to argue for sanctions or other punishments – although they would oppose any attempt by China to intervene in their countries.

Remember, most of the world’s leading financial centres, from New York to London to Paris, have seen their share of turmoil. These unsettled conditions occasionally appear precisely because these centres house pivotal actors in the global economy and inevitably encompass extremes in inequality: from highly paid workers in finance, business services and corporate management, to the far larger workforce in lower-level service activities.

Make no mistake, Hong Kong is a global business centre, not a nation. So, protests that target retail sales or tourism do undermine its total economic output as measured by gross domestic product, for example. But that harm does not extend to Hong Kong’s global financial firms and financiers, to its business services firms, or to its regional corporate management.

Hong Kong’s status as China’s “window to global capital” and the third greatest global financial centre is secure.