The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has overtaken Switzerland as the world’s biggest cross-border wealth hub for the first time, with $2.9 trillion of international assets having entered the city, as detailed in the Global Wealth Report 2026 recently published by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
The BCG predicted that the gap in cross-border wealth between the HKSAR and Switzerland would continue to widen during this decade and eventually amount to $600 billion. Beyond business success, the report also noted that the flow of wealth into Hong Kong was motivated by “clients seeking to spread their assets across multiple jurisdictions to hedge against geopolitical tensions, sanctions risks and political instability”.
The massive financial resurgence of Hong Kong in recent years has been contrary to what many Western media, pundits, and analysts predicted. They confidently declared that the implementation of the Hong Kong SAR National Security Law (NSL) in 2020 constituted what they described as the “death of Hong Kong”. As the Western narrative went, such laws would “undermine rule of law” in the city, jeopardize its position as a global financial center, and prompt an exodus of capital and business. Instead, all statistics now point to the exact opposite. Hong Kong has not contracted as a financial center but is expanding.
Here’s why: First of all, the rise of geopolitical tensions and global trade wars has caused a redirection of global capital. While in the past, the economy was globalized and open, a fundamental change has been brought about by successive United States administrations which have sought to rip up global economic integration, believing that it no longer suits their national interests. Seeking to contain the rise of China and assert its interests unilaterally, Washington’s priority has been to assert policies of protectionism, in the form of tariffs, a technological embargo, and weaponization of national security to assert dominance over its own sphere of influence and lock China out.
As a result, where does that capital go instead? The answer is the HKSAR. The city is a global financial center that is part of China. This has created a natural safe haven for mainland companies that seek to list and obtain international capital through initial public offerings. Contrary to Western media reports, the NSL and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO) have actually supported this shift
In other words, the global economy has, uniquely to the post-Cold War era, become politicized; and as a direct consequence of this, the US has, along with several of its allies, become undesirable if not outright dangerous for many Chinese mainland firms, as well as many other nationalities, to invest in. For technology, especially in high-end goods, it has become a nonstarter for mainland firms. But even for other nonsensitive assets, such as agriculture, the unpredictability of American policies and climate of paranoia many politicians actively cultivate continues to pose an unacceptable political risk. You could invest your money one day, and your firm could be banned from doing business in the US the next.
Other geopolitical developments have bolstered this shift; the Western freezing, seizing, and confiscation of Russian financial assets amid the conflict in Ukraine has influenced the thinking of investors and businesses alike, undermining trust in Western countries as a safe and stable place for wealth management. While Western countries have always been the No 1 destination by tradition, the world has changed, and thus wealthy investors must think to themselves: “If the worst-case scenario occurs, what happens to my money? Or what if I become a target of sanctions?” and thus the trend moves toward a global redistribution and diversification of assets.
As a result, where does that capital go instead? The answer is the HKSAR. The city is a global financial center that is part of China. This has created a natural safe haven for mainland companies that seek to list and obtain international capital through initial public offerings. Contrary to Western media reports, the NSL and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO) have actually supported this shift. Why? Because prior to this change, Hong Kong was plagued by political unrest perpetrated by separatists, who launched the “black-clad” riots in 2019-20. The riots were highly detrimental to business.
The NSL and the SNSO have upheld order, stability and certainty in the city while ensuring that Hong Kong maintains its high degree of autonomy. Western politicization of the NSL and the SNSO, after all, has always been a position born from double standards. For example, Singapore is a financial center that has strict national security laws, yet it does not receive any Western challenge to its credibility. Meanwhile, the HKSAR has also worked hard to seek out new alternative sources of capital, expanding its ties with the non-Western world, including the wider Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. These are regions that seek strategic and economic advantage in expanding financial ties with China, and thus the city has become an international gateway.
As geopolitical friction grows, global wealth flows are reorienting, with both the HKSAR and Singapore becoming nexuses of capital in Asia. As the US seeks to break up the multilateral economic system through geopolitical tensions, global capital distribution has become less unified and more diversified. Ironically, despite the effort to undermine Hong Kong politically, the city has been positioned to benefit more from this than any other location in the world.
The author is a British political and international-relations analyst.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
