Since 1983 Hong Kong has pegged its currency to the US dollar through a currency board system that is unique among the world's advanced economies. In this first comprehensive book about Hong Kong's monetary system, Tony Latter draws on his considerable experience in central banking generally, and with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in particular, to give a detailed account of how the system operates; why it was introduced; what are the important differences from other monetary regimes; and how it has performed. After a brief overview of Hong Kong's currency board system, two chapters explain the key features of mainstream monetary policy as practised in most economies and how the currency board differs. Then three chapters deal with the history of money in Hong Kong from the mid-1930s, describing the salient events and changes of the period up to the 1983 crisis and the consequent re-adoption of the currency board. Descriptions of the functioning of the system after 1983 and its evolution to the present day then follow. The book concludes with assessments of the performance of the currency board since 1983 and of the Hong Kong economy more widely. This book is designed both to inform lay readers and to provide substance for monetary economists. Given the key role of monetary policy in providing a stable foundation for a strong economy, the book is of importance for all business people in Hong Kong, while the more analytical sections provide essential reading for all students of economics.

40 or 50 families control the economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Their interests range from banking to property, from shipping to sugar, from vice to gambling. 13 of the 50 richest families in the world are in South East Asia yet they are largely unknown outside confined business circles. Often this is because they control the press and television as well as everything else. How do they do it? What are their secrets? And is it good news or bad for the places where they operate? Joe Studwell explosively lifts the lid on a world of staggering secrecy and shows that the little most people know is almost entirely wrong.

The volume collects the published articles of Dr. Marjorie Topley, who was a pioneer in the field of social anthropology in the postwar period and also the first president of the revived Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Her ethnographic research in Singapore and Hong Kong set a high standard for urban anthropology, and helped creating the fields of religious studies, migration studies, gender studies, and medical anthropology, focusing on topics that remain current and important in the disciplines. The essays in this collection showcase Dr. Topley's groundbreaking contributions in several areas of scholarship. These include “Chinese Women’s Vegetarian Houses in Singapore” (1954) and “The Great Way of Former Heaven: A Group of Chinese Secret Religious Sects” (1963), both important research on the study of subcultural groups in a complex urban society; “Marriage Resistance in Rural Kwangtung” (1978), now a classic in Chinese anthropology and women’s studies; her widely known and cited article, “Cosmic Antagonisms: A Mother-Child Syndrome” (1974), which investigates widely shared everyday practices and cosmological explanations that Cantonese mothers invoked when they encountered difficulties in child-rearing; and “Capital, Saving and Credit among Indigenous Rice Farmers and Immigrant Vegetable Farmers in Hong Kong's New Territories” (2004 [1964]).

A gripping history of China's deteriorating relationship with Hong Kong, and its implications for the rest of the world. For 150 years as a British colony, Hong Kong was a beacon of prosperity where people, money, and technology flowed freely, and residents enjoyed many civil liberties. In preparation for handing the territory over to China in 1997, Deng Xiaoping promised that it would remain highly autonomous for fifty years. An international treaty established a Special Administrative Region (SAR) with a far freer political system than that of Communist China—one with its own currency and government administration, a common-law legal system, and freedoms of press, speech, and religion. But as the halfway mark of the SAR’s lifespan approaches in 2022, it is clear that China has not kept its word. Universal suffrage and free elections have not been instituted, harassment and brutality have become normalized, and activists are being jailed en masse. To make matters worse, a national security law that further crimps Hong Kong’s freedoms has recently been decreed in Beijing. This tragic backslide has dire worldwide implications—as China continues to expand its global influence, Hong Kong serves as a chilling preview of how dissenters could be treated in regions that fall under the emerging superpower’s control. Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World tells the complete story of how a city once famed for protests so peaceful that toddlers joined grandparents in millions-strong rallies became a place where police have fired more than 10,000 rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets and even live ammunition at their neighbors, while pro-government hooligans attack demonstrators in the streets. A Hong Kong resident from 1992 to 2021, author Mark L. Clifford has witnessed this transformation firsthand. As a celebrated publisher and journalist, he has unrivaled access to the full range of the city’s society, from student protestors and political prisoners to aristocrats and senior government officials. A powerful and dramatic mix of history and on-the-ground reporting, this book is the definitive account of one of the most important geopolitical standoffs of our time.

Hong Kong's reunification with China on July 1, 1997 after 156 years of British rule was a historic event of worldwide significance. While the transition to Chinese sovereignty has so far been smoother than expected, there are lingering doubts concerning three interrelated issues: whether the Hong Kong dollar can continue to exist, whether the linked exchange rate can survive and whether Hong Kong can retain its role as an international financial centre. These issues are analyzed and discussed objectively in the first article of this book.The second article confines itself to the workings of the currency board. In addition, the future of the system after Hong Kong's historic reunification with China is briefly discussed.

This book provides an overview of Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre, focusing especially on how Hong Kong has contributed significantly, and continues to contribute significantly, to China’s economic development. It considers the importance of Hong Kong’s stock market in raising finance for Chinese companies, explores the potential of Hong Kong as an offshore financial centre, and discusses recent regulatory reforms. It concludes by assessing the prospects for Hong Kong’s continuing success as a global financial centre, and puts forward recommendations for policies which would help secure continuing success.

Hong Kong’s Link to the US Dollar covers the origins of the city’s currency crisis in 1983, the initial resolution of the crisis by creation of a traditional currency board, the subsequent problems leading to the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, and the later reforms. A new final chapter traces monetary developments in Hong Kong between 2005 and 2020. This valuable compendium of articles, originally written in the bimonthly journal Asian Monetary Monitor between 1981 and 1989, includes the key article that formed the basis for the Hong Kong government’s decision in 1983 to peg the currency to the US dollar, as well as other important documents of historical record. The main contribution of the book is its detailed monetary analysis of Hong Kong’s unique financial system before and after the currency crisis of 1983. The book explains the collapse of the floating Hong Kong dollar under the pressure of capital outflows during the Sino-British negotiations (1982–84) over the future of Hong Kong, the fascinating story of the introduction of the linked rate system pegging the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar, and the subsequent gradual process of reform and refinement of the currency board mechanism (1988–2020). Hong Kong’s Link to the US Dollar will enable readers to obtain a comprehensive picture of why the linked rate system was put in place, how it works, and how it has been strengthened over the years. The second edition extends the discussion to 2020. Hong Kong’s Link to the US Dollar covers the origins of the city’s currency crisis in 1983, the initial resolution of the crisis by creation of a traditional currency board, the subsequent problems leading to the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, and the later reforms. A new final chapter traces monetary developments in Hong Kong between 2005 and 2020. This valuable compendium of articles, originally written in the bimonthly journal Asian Monetary Monitor between 1981 and 1989, includes the key article that formed the basis for the Hong Kong government’s decision in 1983 to peg the currency to the US dollar, as well as other important documents of historical record. The main contribution of the book is its detailed monetary analysis of Hong Kong’s unique financial system before and after the currency crisis of 1983. The book explains the collapse of the floating Hong Kong dollar under the pressure of capital outflows during the Sino-British negotiations (1982–84) over the future of Hong Kong, the fascinating story of the introduction of the linked rate system pegging the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar, and the subsequent gradual process of reform and refinement of the currency board mechanism (1988–2020). Hong Kong’s Link to the US Dollar will enable readers to obtain a comprehensive picture of why the linked rate system was put in place, how it works, and how it has been strengthened over the years. The second edition extends the discussion to 2020.

Examining developments following Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty, this book argues that genuine autonomy from the central government in Beijing is impossible without a democratic system in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is a small city with a big reputation. As mainland China has become an 'economic powerhouse' Hong Kong has taken a route of development of its own, flourishing as an entrepot and a centre of commerce and finance for Chinese business, then as an industrial city and subsequently a regional and international financial centre. This volume examines the developmental history of Hong Kong, focusing on its rise to the status of a Chinese global city in the world economy. Chiu and Lui's analysis is distinct in its perspective of the development as an integrated process involving economic, political and social dimensions, and as such this insightful and original book will be a core text on Hong Kong society for students.

Hong Kong SAR is now highly unusual as a large economy running a currency board system that pegs the Hong Kong Dollar to the US Dollar. This volume explores the origins and persistence of this system, presenting the viewpoint of several of the main protagonists in the operation of the currency board since 1983 as well as new research by academics.