Hong Kong Official Slams ‘bias Against China’ After New Article By Stephen Roach

A senior Hong Kong finance official has hit back at criticism of the city’s prospects as “bias against China”, following a recent commentary by a prominent US economist who asserted that “the Hong Kong of old is over”.

The government’s rebuttal did not directly name any specific critic but was published after American economist Stephen Roach wrote an opinion article saying Hong Kong had become a mainland city.

“Some critics appear to be driven by bias against China rather than objective analysis. Their criticism is neither backed by evidence nor aligned with facts,” Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun wrote in a commentary published by a local newspaper on Wednesday.

“On the contrary, investors and talent have full confidence in Hong Kong, drawn by our global connectivity and international character.”

In an online commentary titled “Yes, the Hong Kong of old is over” published last week, Roach, a faculty member at Yale University and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, argued that despite surface-level market rebounds, the city had fundamentally transformed from an autonomous, globally connected enclave into one dependent on mainland China.

Yale University economist Stephen Roach in Hong Kong in January 2023. Photo: Jonathan Wong

He pointed out that Hong Kong’s financial recovery, specifically its return to the top spot for initial public offerings (IPOs), was primarily fuelled by mainland Chinese firms, casting the city as a specialised platform for mainland issuers rather than a broad-based global market.

He said that the city’s recent economic resilience was “largely made in China, not in Hong Kong”, while also citing the resignations of six foreign judges from the Court of Final Appeal as evidence of compromised judicial independence.

He added that an outflow of expatriates and local mid-to-senior-level professionals had been offset by an influx of mainland Chinese talent, observing that “walking the streets of Hong Kong today, one is just as likely to hear Mandarin as Cantonese”. He said this highlighted a shift that was reshaping the city’s identity into “Xianggang”.

Roach sparked debate in 2024 after he penned an opinion piece arguing, in part, that Hong Kong would be caught in the “crossfire” of the intensifying rivalry between China and the US.

Wong said on Wednesday that in the first half of the year, Hong Kong recorded 87 IPOs that raised HK$210.2 billion – nearly double the amount from the same period last year.

As of the end of June, more than 500 listing applications were being processed, he added.

Deputy finance chief Michael Wong cited the latest Global Wealth Report that identifies Hong Kong as the world’s largest cross-border wealth management centre. Pho: Sun Yeung

Wong also noted that the number of single-family offices in Hong Kong had exceeded 3,380 by the end of last year, marking a growth of more than 25 per cent over the past two years.

The deputy finance chief noted that, according to the Global Wealth Report 2026, Hong Kong had become the world’s largest cross-border wealth management centre.

As of 2025, the number of mainland Chinese and overseas businesses operating in Hong Kong had reached 11,070, while the number of local start-ups had risen to 5,221, with both figures hitting record highs, he added.

In an earlier interview with the SCMP, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also defended the city’s international financial centre status amid criticism of its heavy reliance on mainland Chinese IPOs, saying the city’s role as a gateway for such overseas expansion was a strength rather than a weakness.