Hong Kong - Today's WorldView from The Washington Post

Today's WorldView from The Washington Post



...“Diplomats have played down the suggestion that the U.S., or other Western governments, will revoke Hong Kong’s special status on a wholesale basis,” said Ben Bland, director of the Southeast Asia Project at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. “Such a move would punish the Chinese state-owned companies, tycoons and officials who use Hong Kong as an entry point to the global financial system. It would also undermine the political and economic interests of foreign governments and businesses in Hong Kong, as well as punish local citizens who would suffer from the inevitable financial fallout.



Yet that’s precisely the sort of wanton havoc a politician such as Trump may consider unleashing. “As Chinese officials have discovered over the past year, nothing is sacred to the U.S. president when it comes to collecting chips that he thinks he can cash in during the course of a negotiation,” wrote Tom Mitchell, the Beijing bureau chief for the Financial Times. “If anyone is willing to turn the screws on Hong Kong as they are now being turned on Huawei, it is Trump.”