Looking for union from 'accord of men'

Of course, none of the foreign institutions would have come if the environment were not conductive to doing offshore financial businesses. The Hong Kong government rejected the notion of incentives deemed incongruous to the economic policy, which forbade the granting of subsidies to any particular sector of industry. Instead, the government maintained that the city's advantages, including a world-class infrastructure, low taxes, free flow of foreign exchange, an equitable judiciary system and a level-playing field for all, were sufficient to entice financial institutions from around the world.

More important, of course, were the plentiful business opportunities made available by the insatiable demand for capital by many governments and private businesses of the various regional economies from Indonesia in the south to South Korea in the north to feed their development and growth. Private banking and wealth management businesses also took off in the newly established financial centers to cater for the growing number of rich individuals in the region.

As one of the most revered Chinese philosophers Mencius (372 BC-289 BC) said: "Opportunities of time vouchsafed by Heaven are not equal to advantages of situation afforded by the Earth, and advantages of situation afforded by the Earth are not equal to the union arising from the accord of Men."

It is hard to predict the "opportunities of time vouchsafed by Heaven". But it seems that Shanghai, with the backing of the central government, is doing all it can to make the most of the "advantages of situation afforded by the Earth". What it must do now is to achieve the "union arising from the accord of Men".

And that is the most important and the toughest part.