China's Impact on Hong Kong's Position As an International Financial Centre : The Legal and Policy Dimensions

Hong Kong's ambition to maintain its position as an international financial centre – or even to become a more significant one, depends overwhelmingly on the market of Mainland China (hereinafter the Mainland, China or the PRC). China, however, provides a mixed blessing for Hong Kong in this regard, arising out of the inevitable co-existence of integration and competition between the two regions under Chinese sovereignty. This chapter examines the impact of Mainland China on Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre from legal and policy perspectives. It is organized as follows: Part II looks at the direct economic concessions offered by China through the FTA. Part III discusses the challenges of China's SOEs, many of them are listed in the Hong Kong Exxhange, to the regulatory environment of Hong Kong's stock market. Part IV analyses the impact of the rise of Shanghai and Shenzhen on Hong Kong, focusing on the implications of Shanghai's ambition, driven by China's relevant industrial policies, to be an international financial centre. Part V concludes