Hong Kong Touts Its Reopening to Wall Street Despite Covid Controversies, Typhoon

City’s financial summit drew executives from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley—but featured little debate

Hong Kong’s attempts to welcome back global investors with a flagship summit were overshadowed by the controversial handling of a top local official’s Covid-19 test result, a typhoon and a lack of debate over how coronavirus restrictions have weakened investors’ confidence in both Hong Kong and mainland China.

Some of Wall Street’s top brass, including the chief executives or chairmen of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG, gathered on Wednesday at the city’s Four Seasons Hotel for a summit hosted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Local officials touted the event as a watershed moment showing that Hong Kong is joining much of the rest of the world in trying to return to normality, having had to align closely with China’s zero-Covid policy for much of the pandemic until recently.