This week, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Finance Ministerial Meeting, bringing together ministers and other high-ranking officials from all across Asia-Pacific. The event, led by China’s Ministry of Finance, is taking place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This is the first time Hong Kong has hosted such a gathering; it is a platform to definitively reclaim the city’s global narrative amid the challenges of recent years.

The APEC meeting stands as a psychological return to “business as usual” in terms of economics. In practice this has already been the case for a long time. Thus, it is common sense to say that Hong Kong is Asia-Pacific’s primary financial center, and inseparable from the prosperity and economic integration of this region.

The years 2019-24 were a hard period for Hong Kong. The city faced multifaceted challenges across the domains of both politics and economics. This first included the violent unrest on the streets, which was followed by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and then active attempts by the US to isolate and undermine the city through the imposition of sanctions in response to its national security laws, as well as its broader economic campaign against China as a whole in the field of trade and technology. In addition to these things, the SAR has also faced broader general global challenges in the form of an increasingly insecure international environment and the broader turn toward protectionism.

Despite all this, the city has overcome these challenges. Hong Kong remains one of the world’s largest financial centers, there has been no exodus of capital, and the city has also adapted to the new geopolitical environment, transforming into one of the world’s largest initial public offering markets, having become a haven for foreign capital fleeing the US amid hostile policies, and has even overtaken Switzerland as the world’s bastion of offshore wealth. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom government’s attempt to provoke a mass exodus from the city in the form of the British National (Overseas) Visa program also ultimately failed. Finally, the US government also lifted its declaration of an “emergency” status in Hong Kong, with Washington adjusting its trade policies in response to the needs of domestic politics.

Hong Kong has ultimately got through this difficult period and its importance to the global economy remains paramount. The APEC Finance Ministerial Meeting offers the city the opportunity to once again serve as the de facto leader of the Asian financial world, and it is well equipped to do so. The agenda of the meeting covers macroeconomic and financial conditions, financial inclusion, digital infrastructure financing, and exchanges among young finance professionals.

Some challenges remain, which make the messaging and goals of the meeting more important; for even as Hong Kong has endured, the world nonetheless remains locked in a turn toward protectionism, especially on matters of trade and technology. Certain countries are not embracing free trade and open markets, the very formula which has built the prosperity of Hong Kong, but ultimately, seeking to fragment it, build walls and rip up the integration of the global economy to serve unilateral ends. Asia-Pacific, despite political tensions, is a huge beneficiary of the current multilateral trading and financial system, and must collectively resist attempts by third-party countries to destroy its economic integration in pursuit of unilateralist goals.

Hong Kong has grown up as the centerpiece of regional integration, a gateway for finance and commerce between the Chinese mainland, Southeast Asia and the wider world. This owes much to it remaining the leader and champion of economic openness. As in previous times, it continues to offer so much in terms of financial leadership and resources, making it indispensable for the economic development of this wider region. Thus, this is a consequential meeting, Hong Kong is finally “back” and it is business as usual.

The author is a British political and international relations analyst.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.