Interestingly, most of those who read the report were from the United States, followed by Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. The report had three times as many Singaporean readers as local ones. I find this disparity concerning and not for reasons of editorial vanity.
While the Pinglu Canal is a global story – representing one of the world’s most ambitious waterway projects with profound geopolitical implications – its impact on Hong Kong will be just as significant, if not more so, as on our Southeast Asian neighbours or North American observers.
Yet, the topic has barely raised the pulse locally. Many of my fellow Hongkongers admit they neither know nor care about the project. They should, and here’s why.
The canal stretches 134km (83 miles) from Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, down to the Gulf of Tonkin, also known as the Beibu Gulf in China. This engineering marvel is designed to give China’s largely landlocked, developing southwestern interior – Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing – direct access to global maritime lanes. It will serve as a new conduit for trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), China’s largest trading partner.
