Hong Kong's biggest firms take out advert calling for end to protests.

Context:

Twenty of the largest and most well-known companies in Hong Kong took out advertisements in eight major newspapers on Friday, calling for an end to the violence that has engulfed the city the past 5 months.

Analysis:

It is not the first time this has happened, but it certainly is the most significant. Back in August, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing took out advertisements in multiple newspapers in an appeal calling for the cessation of violence. It seems not to have gone to plan, as the violence continued to escalate in the 5 months, prompting more businesses to add their voices in the condemnation. In the past months, all three of the city’s note-issuing banks, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China, Hang Seng Bank and Bank of East Asia, have also taken out advertisements calling for calm.

This time, companies such as Swire Properties, Cathay Pacific and Sing Tao News Corporation have echoed this spirit calling for an end to protests which have dragged the city into a recession for the first time in ten years. People are running out of patience, and more importantly, so are the businesses that prop up the economy. Hong Kong is first and foremost a financial centre, with key strategic value in its location and independence. While businesses remain defiant, the question is: how much longer can they hold out?

Looking Forward:

With no end in sight to a movement that threatens to cripple Hong Kong’s economy and the ongoing US-China trade war, the outlook is looking rather gloom. As Anne Frank said — 'Where there's hope, there's life’. While there is still time, the window for economic recovery is quickly closing. One thing is clear though: it begins with the end of violence.

Sources: SCMP, BBC