Economist Stephen Roach says Hong Kong’s response to speech shows ‘worrisome sense of denial’

Government released lengthy statement in effort to counter claims over economy’s future by US-based expert after his talk in Hong Kong

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US economist Stephen Roach previously came under fire from Hong Kong officials over an op-ed he penned. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 2:16pm, 6 Jun 2024Updated: 4:08pm, 6 Jun 2024

US-based economist Stephen Roach has expressed disappointment over the response of Hong Kong authorities to his predictions and advice about the city’s future, describing their comments as having “a worrisome sense of denial” and being “a smokescreen”.

After arriving at his Connecticut home following a visit to Hong Kong this week, Roach told the Post on Thursday morning he was delighted the government had heard his message, but was discouraged to see it had dismissed his “data, and analytical-based arguments”.

He said the authorities’ rejection of his message over the troubles ahead for the economy lacked an “analytical” angle, and he was worried by their decision to resolve “tough problems” with a “descriptive spin”.

Hong Kong government officials have been at odds with Roach, the former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, since he wrote an op-ed piece called “It pains me to say Hong Kong is over” amid a month-long public consultation on the city’s domestic national security law.

Political scientist Lau Siu-kai said the government’s statement was not only addressing Roach, but any Western commentators who saw the city with “prejudice and narrow-mindedness”, ignored its potential or assumed it would not survive without the United States.

At 11.59pm on Wednesday, the government published a 1,542-word statement to dispute an unnamed individual’s latest assessment of the city with a string of statistics, which the Post learned was aimed at countering Roach’s speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Central earlier in the day.