RMB
Hong Kong “was always china” so no need to make a statement by switching HKD to RMB
Why would there be no access to foreign shares?
You don’t actually own the foreign shares.
You own an “IOU” from your domestic bank that promises you that the bank owns the foreign shares in their foreign branch.
Example: Taiwanese citizen buying Nvidia stock inside their E.Sun Securities account. The actual owner of the Nvidia stock is E.Sun USA. The concept of “owning” which means buying and selling at will, depends on the capital transfer restrictions between E.Sun Taiwan and E.Sun USA. Which, during times of… occupation… would probably be restricted.
I simplified it, but that’s the gist.
…only if one uses a local bank to buy those shares, of course.
It’s perfectly legal and very simple to open an account at a foreign broker and use that one to buy foreign equity. The easiest if most often using one in one’s country of citizenship. Otherwise, IBKR is a popular choice (they accept foreigners from most countries including US citizens, EU citizens and Taiwanese citizens residing in Taiwan). The only downside are some SWIFT fees for funding the account.
I don’t see much advantage in using a Taiwanese bank to buy foreign equities, honestly. Especially as a foreigner. And even completely aside from this topic…
some foreigners cant open in IBKR nor schwab. so a local taiwan bank is the only choice…
If you can’t leave, if you can’t make an international call, if you can’t access the internet, well then you can’t get access to the international shares.
Then imagine if you could do one of the above but loging in required 2 factor login, a password or code generator, or Google passwords all of which you no longer have access to.
Even if you found a way to sell some shares (old school broker on the phone), can you access monies in an overseas bank account?