China led the world into the pandemic and its economy is leading the way out. This should be a time for Beijing to effortlessly extend its soft power. So why hasn’t China’s push to win friends and influence people paid dividends? By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

The worst is over, or at least that’s what many Asia Business Council members think about economic prospects for the next year. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

It is a truism that thriving financial markets need free flow of information. Can Hong Kong prove this truism wrong? By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

Look for more geopolitical tensions and new technologies to continue a period of great disruption in supply chains, business models, and consumer behavior. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

It is unfortunate that North Korea plays with foreign relations–and Korean lives–as if it were just another mass-game spectacle. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

David Webb believes in freedom–free markets and free people. He has been an unusually effective fighter for both kinds of freedom in three decades in Hong Kong. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

The panic is past. But the pandemic is still with us. Businesses are preparing for a world in which the Covid-19 virus and other pandemic diseases are a recurring feature. What will this new landscape look like? By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

The relatively low infection and death rates in Japan and the Four Asian Tigers are a testament to investment in public health infrastructure, transparency and societies that prioritize group interests. By Executive Director Mark Clifford.

Lessons that should have been learned after the harrowing Sars experience were not: diseases like Covid-19 will happen from time to time in a hyper-connected world, and the trust and transparency that will fortify a society’s response to such a crisis is lacking. By Executive Director Mark Clifford.

Like the wildfires in Australia, the political flames in Hong Kong burn hotter with each outbreak. Given that the government shows no intention of heeding the public’s voices, corporate Hong Kong must get to work on community engagement. By Executive Director Mark Clifford.