Cornell University economics professor Eswar Prasad said the continuous HK strike and protests hurt the private wealth of some Chinese mainland.
The tension between the people of HK and its government has been going on for more than 3 weeks now. The biggest one happened last Aug. 18, with 1.7 million people marched Victoria Park, a site famous for people power protests.
In an article published by the Washington Post, it is said that rich Chinese mainlanders who have businesses in Hong Kong are the most affected by the protests. Hong Kong still plays a huge role in ‘protecting the wealth’ of private individuals and when Beijing will take over, it will definitely confiscate all the wealth of mainland Chinese.
Wealth in Hong Kong is not just cold cash or bank deposits, rather, equity and bonds tied up to its financial institutions. It is a fact that Hong Kong has loosed tax and law regulations, which makes it appealing to foreign investors. In addition, according to the Financial Secrecy Index, Hong Kong has the world’s most secretive jurisdictions. It is no wonder why a lot of filthy rich individuals keep their money in here.
Trillions of money stored in banks
According to a survey conducted by the Securities and Futures Commission, there are $533 billion to $3.1 trillion assets stored in Hong Kong’s financial institutions. Many of these are assets in terms of shares and tracing the owners of these shares is likely impossible.
In Hong Kong, it is legal to give away shares without making a person the new owner of the shares. This has been a practice, which makes it easier to keep private wealth into different banks.
Dirty money which comes from corruption was kept in Hong Kong banks and other financial firms. Now that China plans to take over, Chinese mainlanders’ wealth will be disclosed to the government, leading to full confiscation.
