Hong Kong’s financial center status will collapse under direct Chinese leadership, according to U.S. President Donald Trump who praised the previous leadership made of «thousands of geniuses».
Hong Kong continues to be in the spotlight in Washington as Trump expressed his latest views about its uncertain future as a leading financial center.
«Hong Kong can never succeed having China [run it], as opposed to the thousands of geniuses that ran it,» according to a «Fox Business« report quoting the U.S. President. «The Hong Kong markets will go to hell. Nobody’s going to do business.»
Special Trading Status
According to Trump, his decision to officially remove Hong Kong’s special trading status last month was a death knell for Hong Kong’s ability to attract business and service as a top global financial hub alongside New York and London.
A positive, longstanding relationship under the previously existed and resulted in a «tremendous amount of money in the form of incentives to make Hong Kong free,» Trump explained. «[But] once China got aggressive and took it over. I took everything back,» he said. «Everything’s back now and it will fail.»
Vocally Bearish
Comments about the fall of Hong Kong's hub status are not the first from Trump who has recently been more vocal about his bearish views on the city's financial sector. Earlier this month, he spoke ominously about the Hong Kong bourse, reiterating the view that previous success was based on U.S. incentives in exchange for maintained freedoms.
«For freedom, we gave them tremendous incentives […] they took massive business away from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, all of our exchanges,» he said. «We've now taken that all back, Hong Kong will not be a successful exchange anymore […] we're going to make a lot more money now».
