When HSBC lists on the Shanghai exchange, it will give the city a huge boost in its long-running battle with Hong Kong to become China’s leading financial center.
Many multinationals already have quotes in Hong Kong, which has evolved as a global financial hub since the British took over after the opium wars of the 1840s.
Hong Kong’s economy is rooted in capitalism and characterized by low taxation, free trade and minimum government intervention. The Hong Kong dollar is the ninth most traded currency in the world.
Shanghai is struggling to catch up. Chinese companies that wanted access to a deeper and more stable market have tended to drift to the more established former British colony, where broking firms, lawyers and accountants have congregated for decades.
For all Shanghai’s glamour, glitz and easygoing cosmopolitanism, the city’s stock exchange has acquired a poor reputation.
Its listed companies have been the target of a wave of speculative buying by retail investors who have piled into property and other assets, much to the horror of the authorities.
Although Shanghai was beginning to attract some major Chinese companies prior to the credit crunch, the market has crashed in the past two years and has lost much of its luster.
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
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