Pang Jinhua: Middle Eastern capital heavily invests in Hong Kong, focusing on its prospects and orderliness

How Will Middle Eastern Capital’s Eastward Shift Reshape the New Global Financial Order?

Recently, a wave of Middle Eastern capital flowing eastward has surged into Asia, with Hong Kong especially becoming a key strategic hub. Reports indicate that between 2024 and 2025, Middle Eastern capital will net an average inflow of about $22 billion into Hong Kong annually; in the first week of March 2026 alone, inflows exceeded $38 billion, nearly matching the total of the past two years. Overall, Middle Eastern heavy investment in Hong Kong is not simply a short-term risk-avoidance move but a long-term strategic rebalancing driven by factors such as the reshaping of global geopolitical structures and the transfer of trade system power.

For a long time, Middle Eastern oil-producing countries relied on Western security umbrellas and the dominant trade settlement systems. With tax advantages, relaxed regulations, and wealth management services, places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi attracted many international capital and high-net-worth families, once becoming emerging wealth centers in global finance. However, recent regional instability has exposed the limitations of traditional Western security frameworks. More critically, Western systemic dominance—weaponizing the SWIFT system and dollar clearing—has turned financial channels into tools of geopolitical leverage. This naturally makes Middle Eastern capital, which continues to invest westward, uneasy. When maritime security is uncertain and international trade rules become tools for unilateral sanctions, long-term-focused Middle Eastern sovereign capital will inevitably seek “safe havens.”

Middle Eastern capital has realized that future global geopolitical turbulence may become the norm. Therefore, sovereign wealth funds from the region must find neutral, friendly jurisdictions to house core assets. Meanwhile, the global economic center of gravity is accelerating its shift toward the Global South and Asia, including China, where significant progress has been made in infrastructure, new energy, and digital economy sectors, becoming key links in global supply chains. This aligns with Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” and other transformation plans.

Capital follows industrial chains and also follows more efficient systems. To mitigate the risks of dollar weaponization, Middle Eastern countries are accelerating the promotion of local currency settlement. The eastward capital flow is a crucial step toward building an independent payment and reserve cycle outside the unipolar dollar system, with emerging markets participating collectively.

In this strategic layout, Hong Kong’s role as a core hub stems from its unique position and institutional openness. Hong Kong is one of the few places that can deeply connect with China’s vast domestic market and industrial chain while seamlessly integrating international financial rules. The coexistence of different legal systems, currencies, and trade rules here provides Middle Eastern capital with a broader range of institutional options beyond a single system.

Deeper still, Hong Kong is helping to build a “Energy-Finance-Tech” closed loop, thereby reshaping global trade rules. As the world’s largest offshore RMB center, Hong Kong has long been a hub for “Petro-RMB” inflows and investments. Recently, it has proactively aligned with Middle Eastern capital needs, issuing Islamic bonds and other initiatives. Middle Eastern sovereign funds, eager to reduce oil and gas dependence and pursue technological and green transformation, find China’s leadership in solar energy, electric vehicles, and other fields highly compatible. As a financing platform, Hong Kong effectively promotes tripartite cooperation among Middle Eastern capital, Chinese technology, and global markets, fostering new industry standards and trade norms.

Additionally, China’s diplomatic stance of promoting peace and negotiations has earned political trust from Middle Eastern countries. Hong Kong’s institutional credibility contrasts sharply with the increasingly politicized compliance scrutiny from Western countries and Japan, demonstrating a more inclusive approach to international trade governance.

This recent Middle Eastern crisis signals the accelerating collapse of the old global geopolitical and economic order and Western monopoly power. Middle Eastern capital’s heavy investment in Hong Kong reflects a carefully considered balance and migration. In terms of security, it shifts from reliance on Western military protection to leveraging the resilience of Eastern markets and diplomatic neutrality; economically, it moves from “oil-for-dollars” to “energy-for-development”; institutionally, it transitions from passive follower of unipolar rules to active participant in multilateral governance. With a long-term perspective, under Middle Eastern capital’s influence, Hong Kong will not only serve as a safe harbor for various funds but also become a crucible for deep integration of global trade and industry, forging a more just, rational, and inclusive international financial and trade order. (Author: Financial Commentator)