Our Hong Kong Foundation vows to mend ‘huge reputation damage’ to city amid US-China rift

Hong Kong’s largest think tank has a pressing task to help repair the “huge reputational damage” the city has suffered as a result of strained US-China ties.

Bernard Chan, chairman of the Our Hong Kong Foundation, said it would expand its overseas exchanges to persuade outsiders to come and see the city for themselves, at a time when both the government and businesses feared repercussions amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.

The prominent businessman and former convenor of the key decision-making Executive Council also said that as a financial hub, Hong Kong should be under no illusion that US-China ties would return to the way they used to be, regardless of the outcome of November’s US presidential election.

Urging local businesses to accept the “new norm”, he said that if US Vice-President Kamala Harris won, President Joe Biden’s policy towards China would continue.

If former president Donald Trump won, he added, policies could become more unpredictable.