Hong Kong bristles at being labeled a «failed state» by the international community despite being a $360 billion financial powerhouse for the rest of Asia, writes finews.asia's editor-at-large Shruti Advani. 

«This is a story we Hong Kong people have lived through before,» says a local tycoon in response to allegations in the international press that the city of 7 million is a failed state. «Whether it was the previous [SARS] epidemic or the protests, the West has always been calling time on Hong Kong,» says the patriarch of a Hong Kong-based family whose holdings include listed companies with manufacturing facilities in Mainland China.

«We have a stable economy, low unemployment rate and one of the best-regulated capital markets in the region if not the world. We are a people known for our industriousness and have been open to intellectual and financial capital from all over, so why this harsh treatment?» he asks.

From Solar Energy to Sneakers

China is directly responsible for 20 percent of the world’s manufacturing output through the goods it produces and indirectly responsible for more through its manufacture of components for everything from computers to high fashion.

It is, without doubt, the most important link in the global supply chain of goods and should it become disconnected from the world prices for everything from solar energy to sneakers would without doubt skyrocket until credible alternatives are found.

Mercenary Motive?

«Our factories will reopen on the 15th of February but we have not been able to reach all our labor so are unsure of how many workers will be able to return,» says the tycoon who believes production will resume, albeit at reduced capacity, by the following week.

«However, we have had several calls from buyers who are keen to renegotiate prices even on contracts that have already been partially executed,» he says, visibly bitter that the beneficent public stance by companies worldwide has not prevented a more mercenary approach by individuals.

Singapore vs Hong Kong

The comparison with neighboring Singapore never seems to get old, this time around the Southeast Asian regional hub has been flagged as the preferred destination for expatriates, assets, and investments fleeing Hong Kong.

This notwithstanding the fact that at the moment, Singapore has officially acknowledged it has a greater number of confirmed Coronavirus cases than Hong Kong.

«There is room to debate whether Carrie Lam’s directives on face masks or quarantines have failed, but to say the state has collapsed, that it has failed is extreme,» presses a British banker in Hong Kong who says he is using food and grocery delivery services with great frequency as well as Amazon for anything the local grocery chain Park-N-Shop has run out of.

Too Early to Call it Curtains

Although the severity of Hong Kong’s protests – from a shortage of face masks to the looming prospect of protests resuming – cannot be underestimated, its most prominent citizens insist it is too early to call it curtains on the city.

In response to rumors that sparked a manic stock-piling of essentials such as rice and toilet paper, tycoon Li-Ka Shing’s retail business Dairy Farm issued a statement saying reports of a shortage were false and that it continued to «provide sufficient and diversified choices of products to our customers».

With a Pinch of Salt

After a few phone calls to local pediatricians and hospitals, it becomes clear that they are open to patients and confident they had enough supplies to treat them.

Refusing an offer for face masks to be couriered to the clinic, a Hong Kong GP says it would be wise to take everything reported in the international press with a pinch of salt. «Hong Kong is doing what it does best – getting on with life,» says the banker, and it sounds like sound advice for everyone involved.