The annual Rugby Sevens tournament in Hong Kong sees fans in its raucous South Stand dress up in wildly imaginative costumes to celebrate the beloved British sporting export.
The local South China Morning Post newspaper then selects the most striking costumes to glorify in its next day write-up. Last weekend, among the funky chickens, the singing leprechauns and the grooving Tyrannosaurus rexes, it was four Brits dressed up as the proposed brick "wall" between the U.S. and Mexico who secured that honor.
That a political costume most captured the editor`s imagination is rather fitting given geopolitics` current grip on dictating the direction of global economic developments and financial markets.
Being in Hong Kong and exposed to ubiquitous evidence of the extensive historical links between the now-Chinese territory and its British former rulers gave me pause to consider the future relationship between China and the U.K. – one both upended and given a greater imperative by Brexit.
Following the extravagant enthusiasm of the ex-Prime Minister David Cameron and his government`s approach towards China, incumbent Theresa May has, true to style, outstretched a more tentative hand to the single party state, as exemplified by decisions such as the one to review and then impose tighter security conditions on the £18 billion ($22.3 billion) Hinkley Point nuclear project in southwest England.
Nonetheless, May and her fellow ministers, including Trade Secretary Liam Fox who made a two-day trip to China and Hong Kong last October to bang the gong for global free trade, have made no bones of the fact they consider the potential for trade deals with non-European behemoths such as China and India, a critical post-Brexit "opportunity".
And yes, there is a unquestionably a tremendous opportunity to be chased as the Chinese government seeks to structurally re-engineer its economy, stoke demand amongst its 1.4 billion people and deploy its extensive foreign exchange reserves into global projects.
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