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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Sphar who wrote (5387)	8/4/1998 10:34:00 AM
From: Kent C.	Respond to of 9980

The Politics of Face and Favour Points East By David Porter HONG KONG -- In the turbulent years preceding July 1, 1997, international pundits and press people were full of dire predictions about how China would lay its heavy red hand upon Hong Kong, squeezing the life out of the prosperous and plucky little colonial capitalist enclave. What a difference a year makes. The squeeze is certainly on, but even the most Sino-phobic observer would be hard-pressed to blame the Mainland for Hong Kong's current problems. If anything, China has emerged as the white knight of the Asian economic crisis, with its steadfast refusal to devalue the Yuan while currencies on all sides have melted down like marshmallows in a Mongolian hot pot. Hong Kong, on the other hand, is slowly coming to terms with the fact that fat fiscal reserves offer no real protection against the Asian economic flu. The anniversary of the handover -- and the debacle surrounding the opening of the new Chek Lap Kok airport -- offer useful insights for investors contemplating a leap into admittedly still reef-strewn Asian waters. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from Chek Lap Kok (and indeed from the past year1s turmoil in the larger region), is that politics and economics are heavily intertwined. At Chek Lap Kok Airport, it was politics and people, rather than bricks, mortar and computer systems, that were the real villains of the piece (but more about that later). continued investor1.com;