Alibaba has “returned home” to Hong Kong, the Chinese ecommerce group’s chief executive Daniel Zhang told a gathering of the great and the good last week.
Some homecoming. While Mr Zhang, his Alibaba deputies and local dignitaries took turns to bang the ceremonial gong on Tuesday to mark the company’s $13bn Hong Kong stock market debut, riot police prowled the perimeter of the exchange building. On the other side of Victoria Harbour, there was a stand-off between police and demonstrators holed up at a university.
Just days earlier, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy politicians had romped to victory in local elections, dislodging their pro-Beijing rivals and delivering a decisive thumbs down to the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam and China’s President Xi Jinping.