HONG KONG likes to think of itself as a bastion of global capitalism. Unlike politicised and parochial financial centres on the Chinese mainland, locals claim, their transparent markets protect the rights of minority investors. As evidence, they point to the fact that Hong Kong refused to let Alibaba list on its stock exchange last year, because the Chinese e-commerce giant’s management wanted to use a dual-share structure that limited the rights of minority shareholders. That rebuff forced Alibaba to move its $25 billion listing to New York.