This region is already leading the world

A new border crossing opened on Wednesday between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, now the twin gods of global finance.

Hong Kong is far ahead of New York as the world leader for IPOs, and Shenzhen is the planet's best-performing stock market by far.

How things have changed.

I remember the first time I went to Shenzhen (seems like yesterday) I immediately encountered fraud, theft, sleaze, money laundering, bribery and corruption.

And that was just in the hotel lobby.

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It's funny - if you look at the political news, everyone is miserable, but step into Hong Kong's business world and folks are literally dancing in their IFC and ICC offices.

It was announced this week that Hong Kong would co-host the biggest stock market launch in world history. Ant Group handles 100 million mobile transactions a day, about half of which are probably this columnist's daughters doing online shopping.

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The English in this sign from China seems redundant, but may be useful in the UK where there's wide debate about various types of non-conforming sexual identities.

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Cheeky Hong Kong tech-lover Tony A Verb found the perfect way to capture a major life event - his engagement to Natalie Chan - on film without spoiling their privacy.

He proposed to her alone on the deserted Tai Long Wan beach - and had the moment recorded by a remote-control drone hovering in the sky.

The video shows Natalie thrilled to accept a ring from him - while saying: "What is this? Oh my God! Why is there a drone?"

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The staff of wacko British politician David Alton have now raised 200,000 (HK$2.05 million) to launch lawsuits against Hong Kong police officers for doing their jobs.

Sam Tang yesterday reported a key problem with Alton's cunning plan.

"The UK has suspended the extradition treaty with Hong Kong," he said. "The best the UK courts can do is write a lovely invitation letter with a bunch of flowers to the accused to attend."

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On Wednesday night, a group of activists in the US city of Portland decided to use Hong Kong radicals' tactics, wearing black clothes, carrying umbrellas and blocking a main road, said Patrick Henningsen, a US journalist.

Police simply charged through with batons, sending everyone flying and clearing the road in 44 seconds.

"Really shows how soft the Hong Kong police were in comparison," Patrick said.

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A reader who uses the pen name SKK Boz decided to look at the tweets of Aaron McNicholas, who yesterday was refused a visa to work as a journalist in Hong Kong.

"They are 99 percent political, almost entirely of an anti-government stance," SKK said. "Virtually no other stories about life or other current issues in Hong Kong at all. We don't need 'journalists' who are really just protesters."

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A Chinese Muslim named Temur yesterday found an essay in which "Kong Tsung-gan" of the Hong Kong Free Press wrote about his birth.

"We were born in Hong Kong. We identify with Hong Kong. It is our place, our society." He was exposed by this newspaper as former Amnesty International staffer Brian Kern from the United States.

Meanwhile, one of the people on Twitter now deliberately using "Brian Kern" as a fake name shared the passage, with a caption: "Read about my upbringing in Hong Kong here."

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