Hong Kong as World-Beater Cut in London Metal by Mandarin Li
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Charles Li, the chief executive officer of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., put on a tuxedo for the first time and stood before a crowd of 2,000 metals professionals at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel in October, capping an impromptu speech with a couple minutes of Mandarin.
That a quarter of the guests assembled for the annual dinner of the 136-year-old London Metal Exchange were Chinese bankers or traders who understood him underscored the new order at the venue Li would soon acquire.