• Asia.China concentrates forces at the gates of Hong Kong
  • Editorial.Hong Kong, a very risky pulse to China

For any observer of Chinese reality and especially the history of Hong Kong, the name of Li Ka-shing has always been associated with the financial splendor of this metropolis.

The 91-year-old billionaire, the richest character in Hong Kong whose fortune - according to Forbes - is around 27,000 million dollars, got involved Thursday in the political morass suffered by the city since June by publishing several ads in the local press in the who asked that "violence and anger be stopped in the name of love".

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," said the well-known businessman, whose emergence in the confrontation between opponents and the government supported by Beijing since June reflects the enormous concern of the Hong Kong elite in a situation that is leading the local economy to a recession, as recognized by the head of the regional executive Carrie Lam .

As the latter said last week, the contraction of the Hong Kong economy "is approaching very quickly." "Some people have described it as a tsunami. Recovery will take a long time," added the controversial leader.

On Thursday, his Government announced an urgent package of 19,100 million local dollars (2,200 million euros) in aid to companies in the enclave to curb the deterioration of the economic situation.

"If the economy grows at the same pace as in the third quarter - where a contraction of 0.3% was already recorded -, the city will be technically in a recession," said Finance Minister Paul Chan Mo-po . "It will be the worst situation we have faced since 2009," he added.

The predictions of the autonomous government are shared by most experts, who believe that negative growth is already inevitable.

The British consultant Capital Economics said that the altercations have caused a deep decline in the influx of tourists , especially Chinese from the mainland - which represent 40% of visitors who receive autonomy and 80% of their retail sales- , whose purchases have been reduced between 30 and 50%, "while hotel occupancy decreased in double-digit percentages," the firm said in an analysis.

The repercussions of an economic crisis in Hong Kong would not be as significant for China as it would have been decades ago . In 1997, the GDP of this place represented a fifth of all that accumulated in the Asian country but now it does not exceed 3%.

However, the enclave still maintains a unique importance for the rest of the Chinese territory as it constitutes the gateway to most of the foreign direct investments that the Chinese nation receives. 71.5% last year, according to official data.

The political instability does not cease to extend its collateral effects to the business world and today caused the resignation of Rupert Hogg, general director of the main local airline, Cathay Pacific, and other senior officials of the firm, who have had to face a massive Chinese social media criticism campaign for not immediately punishing one of its pilots, arrested in one of the opposition demonstrations.

The growing political tension has increased in recent days before the increasingly high-ranking statements of Beijing and sending to the neighboring city of Shenzhen about 12,000 uniformed, a gesture that for Dixon Sing Ming, a political scientist at the University of Science and Technology from Hong Kong, it is a "psychological warfare tactic" and a "well-coordinated attempt to pressure protesters."

Propaganda media controlled by the power of the Chinese Communist Party have been demanding a central government intervention that ends what the People's Daily called "terrorist atrocities."

"End the riots, restore order!" Cried the morning.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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