Business Blog

Hong Kong launches dual counter model, as yuan’s internationalization makes steady progress 香港推出雙櫃檯模式 人民幣國際化穩步推進

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX) officially launched the highly anticipated Hong Kong dollar-yuan dual counter model on Monday, marking a landmark progress in the yuan’s internationalization and strengthening the city’s status as an international financial hub.

The new trading model allows investors to trade securities of the same issuer in either currency and to interchange securities listed in both Hong Kong dollar and yuan counters. Securities under the two counters are of the same class and holdings of securities in the two counters can be transferred without change of beneficial ownership, according to a press released by the HKEX.

On Monday, 24 stocks, including Tencent Holdings, AIA Group, Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Alibaba Group Holding, kicked off the new model. It’s reported that these companies’ combined market capitalization hit HK$12 trillion (US$154 billion), which represents 35 percent of Hong Kong’s total share market. Their shares account for 40 percent of total turnover.

The approval for Hong Kong stocks to be traded in the local dollar and yuan “comes at a time of [rising] strategic importance of the renminbi in flows, liquidity and popularity,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said during a launch ceremony on Monday, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong will play a pivotal role in this change, and we are keen to grasp the opportunities ahead because Hong Kong has long been the offshore yuan trading hub in terms of liquidity, trade settlement or product variety, Chan said.

HKEX Chief Executive Officer Nicolas Aguzin commented that “the new dual counter model is another key milestone in the development of Hong Kong’s capital markets. It will give issuers and investors more choice, it will enrich Hong Kong’s yuan products ecosystem, cementing its role as the world’s leading offshore yuan hub, and it will support the ongoing internationalization of the yuan.”

Professor Ling-chi Wang of UC Berkeley: Chilly reception for Blinken upon his arrival in Beijing in the morning of June 18, 2023

I was up last night to watch Blinken’s arrival in Beijing.

As expected, Tony Blinken received a chilly reception upon his arrival at Beijing Airport in the morning of June 18, 2023. No red carpet and no high-level Chinese diplomats to greet him. U.S. Ambassador Burns and a 4th-ranking Chinese diplomat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met him at the airport. After he settled in at the Diaoyutai Foreign Guest House compound,, he met Qin Gang, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Chinese ambassador to Washington, DC, at a conference facility, most likely in Diaoyutai compound. The two met at the front door. It was courteous and cold. Qin looked relaxed and occasionally smiled. Blinken, on the other hand, was stone-face, nervous, and uncomfortable. As the two walked into the front door of the facility, Qin asked him how his flight was. Blinken tersely answered,”Fine!” Without further conversation, they walked into the conference room. They first stood in front of the two flags for a photo. During the photo session, Qin stretched his hand over to Blinken. Blinken was either unaware of Qin’s outstretched hand for a handshake or hesitated for a moment before he stretched his hand for a historic photo. I did not hear or see any conversation between them. As soon as the picture-taking was over, they headed for the respective side of a long table for their first meeting, flanked by their staffs. No smiles and no casual conversation.

That was the beginning of the first meeting between the two sides. The TV camera blaced kout as soon as they sat down. We don’t know what happened after they sat down.

Judging from their first encounter at the airport and at the brief encounter at the conference site, I doubt anything significant will take place at their meeting. Blinken is scheduled to have a meeting next with Wang Yi, China’s senior diplomat. That is all the public know. Blinken will leave Beijing the next day.

I doubt anything significant will come out of Blinken’s “One Night Stand” in Beijing. The meeting allowed Biden to claim that he reached out to and engaged China without capitulating to China’s demands. This gesture was clearly a political performance for the sole benefit of his reelection campaign next year and to remind the Republicans and American people that he is working hard and standing firm against assertive China. China agreed to the Beijing meeting to show the world that the U.S. is duplicitous and is clearly the villain and the aggressor and China is an advocate of peace and peaceful development around the world. Biden has been busy putting heavy pressure on old and skeptical allies to gang up on China with the U.S. and gaining ground in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. On the other hand, China has been winning friends in the Third World, winning friends and making deals in Latin American, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, parts of Europe.

Let us wait and see what happens next in the unfolding political and diplomatic theater.

I could not resist staying up to watch the Blinken arrival on TV and the chilly reception he justly deserved. It could have been worse, if Beijing had decided to give the same reception the US extended to Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi in the historic encounter in Anchorage, Alaska in 2021. In response to that discourteous recetion, Yang gave a command performance of his life as a diplomat for which he got a “standing ovation”at home and set the tit-for-tet and lex talion style for China’s dealings with the US. I look forward to see and hear what has bee happening in Diaoyutai.

Cherry picking video on Father’s Day at Friend’s House at Walnut Grove California on 6-18-23 摘櫻桃視頻: 父親節在朋友家摘櫻桃
https://rumble.com/v2v1yfc-cherry-picking-video-on-fathers-day-at-friends-house.html
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8J2DJcq/

US Secretary of State Blinken to China: I come in peace 🙃 美國國務卿布林肯告訴中國我為和平而來🙃

Important History about the law & judiciary in HK: racist laws & punishments and the tolerance of slavery by the British until 1923 香港法律和司法的重要歷史：種族主義法律和懲罰以及英國人對奴隸制的容忍直到 1923 年
https://repository.uclawsf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1396&context=hastings_international_comparative_law_review

Taiwan Media video: Technology companies warning US, especially Biden that decoupling with China on chip technology will destroy America. US ultimate loser! 台灣媒體視頻：科技公司警告美國，尤其是拜登，在芯片技術上與中國脫鉤將摧毀美國。 美國最終輸家
https://youtu.be/J-K28v2CRA0 👈

Chinese American Association of Commerce Annual Membership Meeting in San Francisco Chinatown 美國華商總會年度會員大會 6-17-23
https://rumble.com/v2uwlby-chinese-american-association-of-commerce-annual-membership-meeting.html
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8JLFHWJ/

Taiwan Media Video: Bill Gates received a “high standard” reception by Xi Jinping, both shares same values. Blinken’s face turned green? 比爾蓋茲受”高規格”見習近平, 兩人有共同價值觀. 布林肯臉變綠?
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8Jec4Bo/
https://rumble.com/v2ut418-xi-and-gates-shared-same-values.html

Video: White American tourist assaults two young Chinese American women, kills one of them–in Germany 視頻：美國白人遊客在德國毆打兩名年輕的華裔美國女性，並殺死其中一人 The American attempted to raped the 2 girl’s unsuccessful, push both down the 150 foot cliff in Germany killing one and seriously injuring the 2nd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb2iX47D-KE 👈

The two women had just graduated U of Illinois with degrees in Computer science and Computer engineering. This trip to Germany was a likely celebration of their accomplishments and hard work. I can only imagine the grief and horror of the family.

The arrested assailant is visible in this clip below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COHWo0wAO7E 👈

Subway Systems Video: Comparing China and U.S. Subway/Mass Transit Systems 地鐵系統視頻: 比較中國和美國的地鐵和公共交通系統
https://rumble.com/v2us31o-comparing-china-and-u.s.-subwaymass-transit-systems.html
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8JeS8dx/