caught up with max sang line he's head of program economic research at the merrick's nakata institute for china studies here in berlin and he's just returned from hong kong to brief german media about the economic fallout from the unrest there i asked him if hong kong is running the risk of losing its appeal to international investors. hong kong as a global financial center has already taken damage and this in particular is not so much from the protests itself but from china's reaction to the protests the political pressure that was put on companies such as cathay pacific are part of the political influencing of companies and as a global financial center it is essential to remain or have free capital controls obviously but also have a functioning rule of law in this interference in influencing political influencing of companies is eroding some of the essential institutional foundations necessary to have a global financial center that is this part of china's strategy is that it is interest to make hong kong less appealing it should not be in its economic interest it is vital for hong kong to operate as