“Hong Kong was built up by Chinese people, not the British.

[Rusty]

The problem is not China, the problem is the CCP.
If China become democratic tomorrow, HK would have no problem.

CCP controls people to the point of where they can even travel.

No free people want to go back into bondage that the CCP would put them in.

 

[lcloo]

The US media are now saying that China is going into recession and is economically slowing down dramatically because of the trade war. How true is this news??

The correct assessment is China's economy GROWTH RATE is slowing down, the economy is still expanding. The Growth rate is expected to be around 5.5 to 6% for 2019 which is more than twice average growth rate for the world, and more than all developed countries. Last year China added to its economy a value equal to the total GDP of Australia.

Rest assure China is not going into recession, consumer indicators shows Chinese are increasingly buying domestic branded products, absorbing some industrial outputs previously sold to export markets.

Foreign brands like Samsung and Apple's sales are going down but Huawei has increased their sales. Japanese electrical product's market shares are getting smaller, new and expensive Chinese brands like Xgimi, Xiaomi (TV, air filter, water filter etc), Mirval, Jmgo etc. are getting popular.

US, on the other hand could face recession if its economy falter under Trump's administration. China's domestic consumption demand and its USD$3.3 trillion reserve has a better defence against recession than USA.

USA has only a tiny US$128 billion foreign reserve, while its national debts stands at US$21.97 trillion, including US$6.43 trillion in treasury bills of which $1.11 trillion is hold by China. US's credibility is solely based on its strong GDP and the petrol dollar.

Foreign Exchange Reserves in the United States increased to 128338 USD Million in June from 126967 USD Million in May of 2019. Foreign Exchange Reserves in the United States averaged 57122.17 USD Million from 1957 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 153075 USD Million in September of 2012 and a record low of 12128 USD Million in August of 1971.




Analysis: How a recession could doom Trump’s 2020 reelection 2019-08-14

Bank of America says the odds of a recession in the next year are greater than 30 percent. Goldman Sachs says the recession risk is rising because of President Trump’s trade war. Morgan Stanley says a further ratcheting up of Trump’s China tariffs could lead to a global recession.

A looming recession is not yet the consensus of economists, but the doom-and-gloom predictions are increasing as the trade war becomes more pitched and the odds of a resolution before the 2020 election appear longer and longer. Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson recaps many of the ways in which things appear to be headed in the wrong direction.

But however likely you think it is, this inescapable fact remains: Politically speaking, the trade war is a highly suspect and perhaps unnecessary wager for Trump to be doubling down on right now. Trump is taking what is almost inarguably his biggest asset in 2020 — the economy — and throwing a whole bunch of uncertainty into it.

 

[ARMalik]

The correct assessment is China's economy GROWTH RATE is slowing down, the economy is still expanding. The Growth rate is expected to be around 5.5 to 6% for 2019 which is more than twice average growth rate for the world, and more than all developed countries.

Rest assure China is not going into recession, consumer indicators shows Chinese are increasingly buying domestic branded products, absorbing some industrial outputs previously sold to export markets.

Foreign brands like Samsung and Apple's sales are going down but Huawei has increased their sales. Japanese electrical product's market shares are getting smaller, new and expensive Chinese brands like Xgimi, Xiaomi (TV, air filter, water filter etc), Mirval, Jmgo etc. are getting popular.

US, on the other hand could face recession if its economy falter under Trump's administration. China's domestic consumption demand and its USD$3.3 trillion reserve has a better defence against recession than USA.

USA has only a tiny US$128 billion foreign reserve, while its national debts stands at US$21.97 trillion, including US$6.43 trillion in treasury bills of which $1.11 trillion is hold by China. US's credibility is solely based on its strong GDP and the petrol dollar.

Foreign Exchange Reserves in the United States increased to 128338 USD Million in June from 126967 USD Million in May of 2019. Foreign Exchange Reserves in the United States averaged 57122.17 USD Million from 1957 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 153075 USD Million in September of 2012 and a record low of 12128 USD Million in August of 1971.




Analysis: How a recession could doom Trump’s 2020 reelection 2019-08-14

Bank of America says the odds of a recession in the next year are greater than 30 percent. Goldman Sachs says the recession risk is rising because of President Trump’s trade war. Morgan Stanley says a further ratcheting up of Trump’s China tariffs could lead to a global recession.

A looming recession is not yet the consensus of economists, but the doom-and-gloom predictions are increasing as the trade war becomes more pitched and the odds of a resolution before the 2020 election appear longer and longer. Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson recaps many of the ways in which things appear to be headed in the wrong direction.

But however likely you think it is, this inescapable fact remains: Politically speaking, the trade war is a highly suspect and perhaps unnecessary wager for Trump to be doubling down on right now. Trump is taking what is almost inarguably his biggest asset in 2020 — the economy — and throwing a whole bunch of uncertainty into it.

Good post. China is a country of 1.3 Billion people. When you have so many people, it amounts to a huge customer base. All Chinese companies have to do it to ensure high quality product at reasonable prices are provided to the Chinese customers. This alone will ensure good Growth for a few more decades.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Good post. China is a country of 1.3 Billion people. When you have so many people, it amounts to a huge customer base. All Chinese companies have to do it to ensure high quality product at reasonable prices are provided to the Chinese customers. This alone will ensure good Growth for a few more decades.

In fact, Trump should start to launch a trade war against China in 2021 if he doesn't want to get hindered by his re-election pressure.

But his super anti-China hawks believed that by 2021, China will become too strong to deal with. Therefore, they chose to launch the attack by 2018. However, even a 2018 China is too strong to deal with.

 

[Nan Yang]

umm...China do it because it will hurt Chinese stock market too, and if the Chinese have to choose a battle field, they would much rather fight soros in HKSE than any of the Chinese SE, because a.) China do not have that much liquid foreign reserve in China to fight Soros hedge fund, b.) the rule in China SE is different, and the only way they can do it is by devalue Yuan (Which they were eventually forced to do it by Trade War Pressure)

If given a choice, China would much like to prop Yuan up but not devalue it, because it will hurt domestic growth. Using 118 billions (or losing 118 billions) is way less consequence than devalue Yuan.

People need to know, back in 1998, Chinese economy is not as good as now, nor was their FX reserve. Hong Kong back in 1998 have about 60 billions USD FX ready reserve and China have around 150 to 200 billions (Conversive estimate), it may sound a lot in number (roughly 3 times) but China have more asset to guarantee, so that is basically not enough to cover all of them. First of all, if Soros defeated Hong Kong Currency, then the next bet would be Yuan (Soros really hated China) which mean either China can stand by and let Soros defeat Hong Kong's Currency and move on to China with his war spoil, or joint force to defeat Soros hedge fund.

What the Hong Konger did was to raise the interest rate sky high so any attack would bleed dry before coming back down, using the combine 200 billions FX to push the buy price high, while both side blew money, it's basically depends on who can last the longest. And Soros being a businessman did not engage in long term hedging, which mean he take a loss of 2 billions (On top of my head) and China/Hong kong go home losing 100 billions in inflated rate.

I would not say China won the currency war, because it did not bleed soros as much as they bleed Hong Kong and China FX, and that is the reason why today Chinese FX is at 2000-3000 billions level but not 200 billions.

I am not an economic expert. But the attacked is a two prong attack. First you place your future short position in the stock market. Then you sell the currency that you do not own until the government runs out of US$. The Government will then devalue the local currency. When that happens the stock market crashes as people sell the stock to pay off the US $ loans. When that happens the fund managers exercise their forward position and deliver stock that they had sold earlier which they now can buy much cheaper. Practically sucking the wealth out of a poor 3rd world country to enrich the already rich Western countries.

How could Soros attack the RMB as it is not convertible ? Could Soros sell RMB which was a control currency that he does not physically hold ? And how could he use the stock market as it is restricted.

In any case the peg held and that was important.
By not devaluing the RMB China suffer due to lost exports.

When someone help you, accept the help and just say thank you.

Thank you CHINA.

 

[lcloo]

I am not an economic expert. But the attacked is a two prong attack. First you place your future short position in the stock market. Then you sell the currency that you do not own until the government runs out of US$. The Government will then devalue the local currency. When that happens the stock market crashes as people sell the stock to pay off the US $ loans. When that happens the fund managers exercise their forward position and deliver stock that they had sold earlier which they now can buy much cheaper. Practically sucking the wealth out of a poor 3rd world country to enrich the already rich Western countries.

How could Soros attack the RMB as it is not convertible ? Could Soros sell RMB which was a control currency that he does not physically hold ? And how could he use the stock market as it is restricted.

In any case the peg held and that was important.
By not devaluing the RMB China suffer due to lost exports.

When someone help you, accept the help and just say thank you.

Thank you CHINA.

There is a saying that a pen is sharper than a knife.

Soro's fingers are even sharper than pen. For his personal political agenda and greed, countries suffered economic melt downs, hundreds of people committed suicide due to business and financial failures, hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and businesses, millions of family members suffer as their bread earners could not feed and provide for them.

Thank you very much Mr.Soro. You have shown how righteous the capitalist like you helped to make America great and the world a better place to live in.

 

[JSCh]

I guess you can say what happen in HK today after more than 2 decades could be considered China gov't fault.

China has try its best to accommodate the HK way of life and system of gov't, but it seem that HKer just would not reciprocate.

I guess Deng just did not anticipate HKer to behave that way. To appreciate what has been given and to return in kind, is afterall a central pillar of Chinese culture.

Hker seem to think that their democratic system is better, and that is fine. What is not fine is, they have try to influence that system into mainland.

What is it that hard to understand that it would be unacceptable behavior from the mainland point of view. The more HKer exhibit that behavior, the more Chinese gov't would find it necessary to have tighter control over HK.

If HK wishes to keep their way of life and system, they should keep all the elements that attempt to interfere into mainland internal affair to a minimum. Activity like political party that have charter and openly call for changing mainland political system, openly meeting with foreign western politician to ask for support and things like the 4th June protest should stop.

Sometime it seem that HK would do just about anything, simply just to piss off mainland. And that is really childish. And sometime I suspect it is deliberately done so to sow discord between the two people.

HKer need to understand that when what they do affect others, then they should give due consideration and compromise.

China has made a promise not to interfere in HK internal affair, therefore it is up to HKer to police themselves and keep these activity under control. Show China that HK can be responsible adult that can keep issue that affect others under control, and HK would be treated like an adult.

 

[beijingwalker]

It seems Hong Kongers suffer from a post colonial Stockholm syndrome.

Some of them, not all of them, we'll take care of them in due time.

CCP controls people to the point of where they can even travel.

Do you know what you are talking about?

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Chinese tourists overseas in 2018 was 149.7 million, could be more than the number of your total population.

 

[KungFuLee]

pumping that 118 billion to keep the HKD propped up.

That is VERY wrong.

China did not pump 118 billions in HKD to saves HKD, It's easier to fight Soros in HKSE rather than in SHSE or SHSE, because doing so, you will need to devalue RMB, which is what China do not want.

Second of all, fighting Soros in Hong Kong would mean the Chinese can fight Soros using a combination of HK FX and Chinese FX, do bear in mind, this is before any exchange deal offered between RMB and HKD.

If Soros wanted to target renminbi he would have as he was already shorting most South East Asian currencies. But he couldn't that is because firstly (as far as I know) the stock market was not open to foreigners. Secondly, any foreign investment (because of the first point) made was only fixed assets which are harder to divest especially during recessionary phase. The government had tighter control on FX which affected renminbi ability to convert into dollar.

I will not comment on this as this is basically discussing what Soros is or isn't going to do if in the case he successfully hedged HKD. The only person in this world know exactly what he is going to do is Soros himself.

But I will just leave you with this note. After HKD, which other currency in Asia is vulnerable enough and have profit margin good enough to short? Yen? They are already very deflated, shorting yen is like shorting cents. Singaporean Dollars? They are stronger than HKD and If I was soros, I wouldn't touch it after I hedged HKD, because I will bleed a lot of cash doing so.

What you say underlined did not make sense, you are not investing or shorting stock in China Stock exchange, you are shorting the currency forex, those are different.

https://www.thebalance.com/what-it-means-to-go-short-in-investment-terms-1344960
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4054567-china-time-short-yuan

I don't think the idea was to present one party as winning and the other losing. If you want to know the reason why China did it then perhaps a small part of it would be that they believed Hong Kong to be a part of China. But perhaps, the main reason was the HK economy was well integrated with China's and through its far more liberalized markets was spurring economic growth in China.

Virtually no one in Hong Kong Stock Exchange believe that, as I said, if China did not stop Soros in Hong Kong, China would have a more difficult fight later, and if they do so in Hong Kong, they can use not only their own Forex, but Hong Kong's forex as well. It's a better to deflate HKD, which is pegged to USD anyway, than deflate RMB. Hong Kong Dollar can self regulate (Because of the pegging interest rate) while RMB can't.

But well, you can think China think of Hong Kong is a part of China, but economically, it have nothing to do with dealing with Soros. It's basically a strategy, which give you a better chance to win..

I am not an economic expert. But the attacked is a two prong attack. First you place your future short position in the stock market. Then you sell the currency that you do not own until the government runs out of US$. The Government will then devalue the local currency. When that happens the stock market crashes as people sell the stock to pay off the US $ loans. When that happens the fund managers exercise their forward position and deliver stock that they had sold earlier which they now can buy much cheaper. Practically sucking the wealth out of a poor 3rd world country to enrich the already rich Western countries.

How could Soros attack the RMB as it is not convertible ? Could Soros sell RMB which was a control currency that he does not physically hold ? And how could he use the stock market as it is restricted.

In any case the peg held and that was important.
By not devaluing the RMB China suffer due to lost exports.

When someone help you, accept the help and just say thank you.

Thank you CHINA.

Again, you have the problem with the poster before. Shorting currency forex is not the same as shorting a stock.

To short a stock, you will need to borrow stock that you do not have. To short a currency, you only need to place a sell order. And Soros can open an investment company that only trade Currency, but not asset. Which is exactly what Soros did in Hong Kong. And since you can exchange CYN to HKD in 1998 China, (I think the exchange rate is somewhere around 1HKD : 1.2 RMB, but don't quote me on that) which mean you can dump HKD into altering the exchange rate and interest rate of RMB

The only thing you need to notice when you short a currency is pair rate, and China hold a 2% different pair rate between any currency to RMB, which is harder to short, but it's not impossible, especially if you have money. And again, China in 1998 is not the same China now.

In short, he don't need to buy or sell RMB, as long as he can buy or sell HKD or any currency with an exchanged value in China, he could short Yuan.

There is a saying that a pen is sharper than a knife.

Soro's fingers are even sharper than pen. For his personal political agenda and greed, countries suffered economic melt downs, hundreds of people committed suicide due to business and financial failures, hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and businesses, millions of family members suffer as their bread earners could not feed and provide for them.

Thank you very much Mr.Soro. You have shown how righteous the capitalist like you helped to make America great and the world a better place to live in.

Some would argue if the stock market already did not have a grim outlook, it's impossible to short anything (Not stock, not currency, not anything) and Soros could not have make that happens.

He IS a business man, he is no dirtier than any other businessman, would you think there are "Nice" businessman out there will consider the feeling of any employee or people that is affected when he make the decision? Give me a company name and I can name some of the stuff they done driven solely by greed and ignore the suffering population, I mean any company, US, China or anything. Do you think Jack Ma build his empire today by being nice? Or by being a Buddha? How many hostile take over that left how many people jobless before he can build Alibaba the way it is today?

If you think Soros is unethical, you are probably right, but then you cannot be a nice guy and work in business, that is like Business 101.

 

[valkyr_96]

That is VERY wrong.

China did not pump 118 billions in HKD to saves HKD, It's easier to fight Soros in HKSE rather than in SHSE or SHSE, because doing so, you will need to devalue RMB, which is what China do not want.

Second of all, fighting Soros in Hong Kong would mean the Chinese can fight Soros using a combination of HK FX and Chinese FX, do bear in mind, this is before any exchange deal offered between RMB and HKD.

As I have said either your tenses are wrong or you are talking about the present, whereas the article posted and the subsequent comment was what happened during the Asian Financial Crisis (not 2016). That is a part of history and your opinion on it does not matter. My mistake is considering the complete injection to be Chinese when it was a combination of both China and Hong Kong (whatever the ratio).

Here is what you posted "Using 118 billions (or losing 118 billions) is way less consequence than devalue Yuan." (post #6)

"On that occasion, Hong Kong, backed by Beijing, faced him with an unprecedented HK$118 billion stock-buying spree to prop up stock prices and defend the currency peg in August 1998"
Source: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/eco...ng-kong-sent-billionaire-george-soros-packing

I will not comment on this as this is basically discussing what Soros is or isn't going to do if in the case he successfully hedged HKD. The only person in this world know exactly what he is going to do is Soros himself.

But I will just leave you with this note. After HKD, which other currency in Asia is vulnerable enough and have profit margin good enough to short? Yen? They are already very deflated, shorting yen is like shorting cents. Singaporean Dollars? They are stronger than HKD and If I was soros, I wouldn't touch it after I hedged HKD, because I will bleed a lot of cash doing so.

Whether you comment or not will not change history. However, it is certain that if China had not stepped in and George Soros had successfully short HKD then he would have cashed out his profit and continued elsewhere( this is how the business works). He could move to China but as I said and which you underlined and could not understand. The opportunities in China were weak. China was not so significantly affected by the AFC because it was not so internationalized and integrated with the world economy. Infact, Hong Kong was the outlet that they used to reach out to raise foreign financing.

What you say underlined did not make sense, you are not investing or shorting stock in China Stock exchange, you are shorting the currency forex, those are different.

https://www.thebalance.com/what-it-means-to-go-short-in-investment-terms-1344960
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4054567-china-time-short-yuan

It makes perfect sense if you understand how financial markets work. George Soros did not wake up one day and decided to short the bath, ringgit and HKD. The financial crisis causes a flight of capital (the more the liquid the asset the faster it exits) which causes a pressure on the local currency. The common tactic is to adjust the exchange rate (devalue) so as to arrest the flight of capital. Devaluation is a bitter pill to swallow for any nation as it purchasing power declines especially if it is importing nation. Devaluation also makes it easier to foreigners to purchase local assets -its extent dependent on how liberalized investment policies are. Hence the resistance. The issue is how long can the country hold out the downward pressure on the local currency (only till its FX lasts). George Soro's short was meant to exploit this believing devaluation was around the corner.

I have not mixed up shorting stocks with forex. That is your misunderstanding. My context is only in the form of flight of capital opportunities which causes downward pressure on the local currency.

My Quote: "......because firstly (as far as I know) the stock market was not open to foreigners. Secondly, any foreign investment (because of the first point) made was only fixed assets which are harder to divest especially during recessionary phase."

1) Stock market was not open to foreign investment (so no expectancy of liquid stocks being cashed out for profit taking and remittances).
2)The foreign investment was in fixed assets PP&E (hard to liquidate for many reasons especially during recession)
3)The government had tighter control on FX which affected renminbi ability to convert into dollar (this is self-explanatory. The government (BoC) holds the FX and only make its available to people having a license to deal in dollars such as importers and MNCs. Some countries have different local currency and a separate one for foreigners to have control on foreign exchange.)

Again a reminder that China was not much affected by the AFC.

Virtually no one in Hong Kong Stock Exchange believe that, as I said, if China did not stop Soros in Hong Kong, China would have a more difficult fight later, and if they do so in Hong Kong, they can use not only their own Forex, but Hong Kong's forex as well. It's a better to deflate HKD, which is pegged to USD anyway, than deflate RMB. Hong Kong Dollar can self regulate (Because of the pegging interest rate) while RMB can't.

I don't know who are the people you refer to in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that believed whatever you are saying. That being said China was much tightly held and a closed economy than it is today and is now more susceptible to such attacks, but its strong FX position is far greater than any losses a short-seller can take.

But well, you can think China think of Hong Kong is a part of China, but economically, it have nothing to do with dealing with Soros. It's basically a strategy, which give you a better chance to win..

You can have your opinion and I'll have mine which is China needed Hong Kong to drive local investment and avoid the recessionary contagion from spreading inwards. A small part of it was perhaps nationalism.

 

[lcloo]

That is VERY wrong.

China did not pump 118 billions in HKD to saves HKD, It's easier to fight Soros in HKSE rather than in SHSE or SHSE, because doing so, you will need to devalue RMB, which is what China do not want.

Second of all, fighting Soros in Hong Kong would mean the Chinese can fight Soros using a combination of HK FX and Chinese FX, do bear in mind, this is before any exchange deal offered between RMB and HKD.



I will not comment on this as this is basically discussing what Soros is or isn't going to do if in the case he successfully hedged HKD. The only person in this world know exactly what he is going to do is Soros himself.

But I will just leave you with this note. After HKD, which other currency in Asia is vulnerable enough and have profit margin good enough to short? Yen? They are already very deflated, shorting yen is like shorting cents. Singaporean Dollars? They are stronger than HKD and If I was soros, I wouldn't touch it after I hedged HKD, because I will bleed a lot of cash doing so.

What you say underlined did not make sense, you are not investing or shorting stock in China Stock exchange, you are shorting the currency forex, those are different.

https://www.thebalance.com/what-it-means-to-go-short-in-investment-terms-1344960
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4054567-china-time-short-yuan



Virtually no one in Hong Kong Stock Exchange believe that, as I said, if China did not stop Soros in Hong Kong, China would have a more difficult fight later, and if they do so in Hong Kong, they can use not only their own Forex, but Hong Kong's forex as well. It's a better to deflate HKD, which is pegged to USD anyway, than deflate RMB. Hong Kong Dollar can self regulate (Because of the pegging interest rate) while RMB can't.

But well, you can think China think of Hong Kong is a part of China, but economically, it have nothing to do with dealing with Soros. It's basically a strategy, which give you a better chance to win..



Again, you have the problem with the poster before. Shorting currency forex is not the same as shorting a stock.

To short a stock, you will need to borrow stock that you do not have. To short a currency, you only need to place a sell order. And Soros can open an investment company that only trade Currency, but not asset. Which is exactly what Soros did in Hong Kong. And since you can exchange CYN to HKD in 1998 China, (I think the exchange rate is somewhere around 1HKD : 1.2 RMB, but don't quote me on that) which mean you can dump HKD into altering the exchange rate and interest rate of RMB

The only thing you need to notice when you short a currency is pair rate, and China hold a 2% different pair rate between any currency to RMB, which is harder to short, but it's not impossible, especially if you have money. And again, China in 1998 is not the same China now.

In short, he don't need to buy or sell RMB, as long as he can buy or sell HKD or any currency with an exchanged value in China, he could short Yuan.



Some would argue if the stock market already did not have a grim outlook, it's impossible to short anything (Not stock, not currency, not anything) and Soros could not have make that happens.

He IS a business man, he is no dirtier than any other businessman, would you think there are "Nice" businessman out there will consider the feeling of any employee or people that is affected when he make the decision? Give me a company name and I can name some of the stuff they done driven solely by greed and ignore the suffering population, I mean any company, US, China or anything. Do you think Jack Ma build his empire today by being nice? Or by being a Buddha? How many hostile take over that left how many people jobless before he can build Alibaba the way it is today?

If you think Soros is unethical, you are probably right, but then you cannot be a nice guy and work in business, that is like Business 101.

Now I understand how western capitalist economic doctrine have been injected into your mind.

What about Mr. Tan Kah Kee, Tan Kai Hee of Hai O, Lee Kong Chian of Lee Rubber? Yeoh Tiong Lai of YTL? You know them?

As for Hongkie businessmen, they are all capitalist, just as American wall street people are.

By the way, what did Jack Ma did? Did he cause some people die?

 

[Mista]

This is when China came in and support Hong Kong with it's billions in backup.

When someone help you, accept the help and just say thank you.

Thank you CHINA.

Is there any definite proof of the claim that China came in to rescue HK with their reserves? I've seen this claim from mainland Chinese netizens for many years and whenever I asked this question, there's no reply.

Watch this video which debunked the myth:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...dealt-with-the-asian-financial-crisis-9010408

HK's economic fundamentals has always been strong with huge reserves and annual surpluses.

Back then Singapore managed to fend off speculation and even helped our neighbors to defend their currencies without any external backing.

The Asian financial crisis has taught Singapore several important lessons. The primary lesson is that Singapore has withstood the currency storm lashing the Asian region because of its strong economic fundamentals. With high current account surpluses, substantial budget surpluses, high savings rates, huge foreign exchange reserves, strong inflow of foreign direct investment, almost non-existent external debt, and negligible non-performing loans, Singapore was able to deter currency attacks and to take timely and bold measures to counter the large negative shocks triggered by the crisis. Because of its strong position, Singapore was able to promise loans of US$1 billion to Thailand and US$5 billion to Indonesia, as part of the IMF “bailout package” for these two countries. In addition, Singapore has used its foreign reserves to intervene directly in the foreign exchange markets, to help shore up the baht and rupiah in the midst of the crisis.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.475.8642&rep=rep1&type=pdf

At that time HK's economy is almost 2x the size of Singapore's and surely they have enough financial firepower to see through their own crisis, their foreign reserves were the 3rd or 4th highest in the world at that time. They are not Thailand or Indonesia with weak economic fundamentals.

To understand why, let us go back to the international financial crisis of 1997/1998. The size of our monetary base at that time was smaller, at around HK$95 billion, and the amount of foreign reserves needed to back it 100% amounted to about US$12 billion. The crisis came, and there was the initial attack on our currency in October 1997.

First, we used the opportunity to sell foreign reserves for Hong Kong dollars, in anticipation of the draw down of fiscal reserves deposited with the Exchange Fund, as the public finances moved into a cyclical as well as a seasonal deficit. This relieved some of the pressure on the exchange rate and therefore obviated the need for a repeat of the very sharp interest rate hike of 1997. The amount of foreign reserves utilised in this manner was about US$10 billion. Secondly, we sold large sums of foreign reserves for Hong Kong dollars for the purchase of Hong Kong stocks equivalent to US$15 billion. Thirdly, we made the monetary base much bigger in order to reduce the sensitivity of interest rates to inflows and outflows of funds. This involved committing another US$13 billion as additional backing. Thus, what was at that time the theoretical minimum requirement of US$12 billion in foreign reserves for the provision of 100% backing to the monetary base became a requirement to mobilise a much higher level of foreign reserves, amounting to a few times the minimum. It should also be noted that we were able to do so without causing a breakdown of confidence in monetary and financial management in Hong Kong on the part of the international financial community, including financial analysts and rating agencies. To a large extent, this was because we had significantly more foreign reserves in the Exchange Fund than the sums mobilised, and the Fund had no significant liabilities other than the fiscal reserves deposited there.

https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr00-01/english/panels/fa/papers/a1022e02.pdf

Beijing gave only moral support by saying that they "fully support the HK government" and will not devalue the RMB. Even a small country like Singapore did more for our neighbors by giving them loans and shoring up their currency in the forex, and I don't see them to be thankful to us.

 

[Indos]

Even a small country like Singapore did more for our neighbors by giving them loans and shoring up their currency in the forex, and I don't see them to be thankful to us.

As I research to many source it only said Singapore promised to give loan to Indonesia, never heard that Singapore actually gave the loan to Indonesia, and I think Indonesia in the end didnt get the loan as the interest rate is higher than IMF loan.

"Negara-negara sahabat yang menjanjikan akan membantu Indonesia juga menunda mengucurkan bantuannya menunggu signal dari IMF, padahal keadaan perekonomian Indonesia makin lama makin tambah terpuruk. Singapura yang menjanjikan memberikan bantuan sebesar US$ 5 milyar meminta pembayaran bunga yang lebih tinggi dari pinjaman IMF, sementara Brunei Darus-salam yang menjanjikan US$ 1 milyar baru akan mencairkan dananya sebagai yang terakhir setelah semua pihak lain yang berjanji akan membantu telah mencairkan dananya dan telah habis terpakai (Tarmidi, 1999)."

Google Translate

Friendly countries that promised to help Indonesia also delayed disbursing aid awaiting signals from the IMF, even though the Indonesian economy was getting worse and worse. Singapore, which promised to provide assistance of US $ 5 billion, asked for higher interest payments from IMF loans, while Brunei Darus-salam, which promised US $ 1 billion, would only disburse its funds as the last after all other parties who promised to help have disbursed their funds and has been used up (Tarmidi, 1999)

https://www.researchgate.net/public...er_Indonesia_Sebab_Dampak_Peran_IMF_dan_Saran

And no body know how much Singapore made the intervention in forex market as it claim to do so.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.475.8642&rep=rep1&type=pdf


https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr00-01/english/panels/fa/papers/a1022e02.pdf

Even your source only said promise not gave the loan.

 

[lcloo]

Shamelessly still at it. Yellow banana want to be under white supremacist.

 

[mike2000 is back]

The title is abit misleading as well. If Hong Kong had never been a British colony ,then I don't think it would have the international appeal it has today as well no? So there were also advantages for Hong Kong being a crown jewel of the British empire in Asia.