If there's any likely winner from China's unprecedented clampdown on Hong Kong, it's Singapore.

All the tiny city-state needs to do to attract the giant banks, hedge funds and multinational firms currently clustered in Hong Kong is sit back quietly as Beijing's henchmen do their worst.

The firing of tear gas at peaceful demonstrators over last weekend marked a chilling assault not just on Hong Kong's civil liberties, but on the city's economic future.