"Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area" TV forum

The "Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area" TV forum – hosted by CGTN Think Tank and supported by Hong Kong Polytechnic University – has wrapped up in the southern city of Shenzhen on the Chinese mainland.

The international financial hub, despite close connections with the mainland, operates on a different economic system, which is highly internationalized and features a free market, free flow of capital, and a simple tax system.

Hong Kong should leverage these comparative advantages as it further integrates into the Greater Bay Area, a megalopolis linking the southern province of Guangdong with Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

More Chinese assets are flowing back into Hong Kong today, despite threats of sanctions by U.S. President Donald Trump. Some believe the tensions between Beijing and Washington have actually created opportunities for Hong Kong in the offshore international market.

Michael Sung, the Founding Director of the Institute of Digital Finance Innovation, says the China-U.S. trade relations are an example of the game theory.

"This is a situation where we have a predominant power and then a new rising power, which is called the Thucydides's trap," Sung explained. "Because of the zero-sum game dynamics, the predominant one needs to be more aggressive to take out the rising power before it gets stronger."

He stressed that mutual trust should be the resolution. "New technology, for example, fintech and blockchain, allows people to contractually trust each other. Thus, new technology and new business models are the ways that we can actually get to the win-win results."

Professor Sung expressed belief that the new tools of innovation with digital assets could be used to benefit different stakeholders whose interests are aligned.