Sanctions Escalating a Financial Cold War? with James Fok

Jul 13, 2022

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On todays episode of the WTFinance podcast I welcomed back James Fok, a veteran financial and strategic advisor to corporations and governments and author of the recently released book "Financial Cold War: A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets".

Buy the book here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Financial-Cold-War-Sino-US-Relations-ebook/dp/B09NTB7P3Z/

On the podcast we talked about how Ukraine-Russia conflict has changed US-Sino relations, the challenge with sanctions, whether things could escalate between US and China and how international markets overreact to Chinese policies. I hope you enjoy!

0:00 - Introduction
0:29 - How has Ukraine-Russia conflict changed US-Sino relations?
6:10 - Would international investment need to evolve from state-backed to private investment?
8:19 - Will China need to float currency for further international investment?
13:10 - How would the changes occur within China?
19:15 - Were you surprised by the sanctions that were put on Russia?
23:55 - What changes are needed to be made for Hong Kong to gain trust back?
30:14 - Could things escalate between US and China?
34:25 - Japanification of China into the future?
39:00 - Overreacting to Chinese policies?
42:15 - Will Covid-Zero have an impact on Chinese economy?
48:04 - China invading Taiwan in the coming years?
50:30 - What should listeners take away from our interview?
51:40 - Misunderstandings between the West and China?

James Fok is a veteran financial and strategic advisor to corporations and governments. He served as a senior executive at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) from 2012 until 2021, during a period of rapid internationalisation in China's capital markets. While there, he played a major role in a number of landmark financial markets initiatives, including the launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect programme (2014), Bond Connect (2017) and the Hong Kong market's Listing Reforms (2018). Prior to HKEX, Fok worked as an investment banker in both Europe and Asia, specialising in the financial services sector.

Fok has written and spoken extensively about market structure issues and the intersection between geopolitics and international finance. He serves or has served on a number of financial industry bodies, including Ireland for Finance's Industry Advisory Committee (2021-), the Executive Board of the International Securities Services Association (2018-21), and the Financial Services Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council (2014-21). He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Hex Trust (2021-).

Fok holds a BA (Hons) from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. He lives in Hong Kong with his wife and two sons.

James Fok -

Website - https://jamesafok.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-fok-24082237/

WTFinance -

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