Hello, this is Cissy in Hong Kong, writing the #techAsia newsletter for the first time. I cover Chinese business news, with a focus on tech companies.
The city where I have lived and worked for five years has undergone significant changes since Beijing introduced a national security law here. This week, thousands of residents carrying bouquets of flowers in the unseasonable September heat queued for several hours outside the British consulate to mourn the late Queen Elizabeth II, a gesture seen by some as a tacit rebuke of Beijing’s squeeze on freedom in the city.
Tensions between the US and China have also increased markedly in that time. As I draft this newsletter, I am anxiously checking whether US inspectors have arrived in Hong Kong. They are due to conduct on-site inspections of mainland China firms listed in the US “by mid-September”, according to the American side, but so far there is no sign of them.