Hong Kong expats eye exit amid protests

Bloomberg

Like many expatriates in Hong Kong, Madeline Bardin is thinking more and more about leaving.
The 36-year-old entrepreneur has thrived in the city for seven years, but she worries that its summer of unrest isn’t going away anytime soon. She won’t go outside with her 8-month-old son without first checking chat groups and the news for reports of tear gas, and she recently cancelled a business trip on concern that protests at the airport might prevent her from returning home.
“We have a young family to think about and we think this is just the beginning of the changes in Hong Kong,” said Bardin, who moved to the city from London in 2012. “Long term, it just doesn’t make sense for us to stay here with the rising instability.”
Hong Kong’s ability to assimilate people from around the globe has helped turn the former British colony into one of the world’s biggest financial and commercial hubs. But that status is increasingly under threat as expats and their employers weigh the costs of committing to a city mired in its worst political crisis since the handover to China in 1997.
If people like Bardin decide to leave, it could do significant damage to an economy that hosts the world’s fourth-biggest stock market and regional offices for hundreds of foreign companies.
Fitch Ratings Ltd cited Hong Kong’s deteriorating international reputation as one reason for downgrading the city’s credit rating, saying that public discontent is likely to persist even after Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam withdrew the controversial extradition bill that first sparked the demonstrations three months ago.
Just a few hours after the Fitch statement, police used tear gas in a populated area to disperse protesters who dismantled traffic lights and started fires.
Protesters blocked a main road in Mong Kok, a busy shopping and residential district, and burned a barricade near the police station before being chased off by hundreds of riot cops.
Hong Kong has long attracted international bankers, lawyers and other professionals with its energetic urban lifestyle, negligible crime rate and low taxes — a combination that convinced expats to stomach sky-high rents and cramped living spaces.