For HK bank account, you need to be a HK resident to open it (work here or study here).

Same for HK brokerage account with HK bank. You are better off with non-bank brokers and even them mainly cater to day traders and charge very high fees for HK markets.

There is Moomoo (Futu HK) which is popular here however, but you can access it via Futu SG.

Hmm maybe you are new to IBKR. There is only one IBKR, you can open different account types like individual account, join account etc. The account is based in one location depending on where you open it. If you open it originally in Malaysia, then it's based in the US. If you transfer in from TradeStation Global, then it's based in the UK.

In any case, if you have an individual account with IBKR, you can buy securities from all over the world. So you can buy HK shares/bonds/ETFs etc. from your Malaysia IBKR account. You don't need to open "HK" IBKR account. You can't do that since you are not based in HK anyway, no HK address, no HK bank account, no stay permit/visa etc. (I presume you are not in HK.)

As for your first question. whether a broker is safe depends on a lot of factors. The execution of the broker, the profitability of the broker (margins), balance sheet, cash flows, business model, regulations, market share etc. Banks can fail in crisis, let alone brokers.

If the broker is listed, have a look at the financial statements to have a sense of the broker's financial conditions before you decide to open an account. Look for past history of incidents/litigations if available (even IBKR is not spared from them). That way, you can tell if one broker is a "safer" choice than the others.

So, it does mean that attaching to one bank makes the brokerage account safer. More often than not, banks provide such service to complement their business "ecosystem" and make money within their ecosystem. So they have high charges for trading securities than stand-alone brokers like IBKR.

I am no expert in political and legislative stuff. If you need a Chinese-based broker, I don't think there is any option for you since you are not a HK/Chinese resident. You will have to fork out more money to buy via local brokers and local banks then. Futu and Tiger are not for you, they are listed brokers in the US itself. If you are HNWI, then private banks will sort things out for you.

500k USD includes all US listed shares whether they are of Chinese origin or not.

You can still strike a balance by buying Chinese/HK equities via local brokers and invest in the rest of the world via IBKR/Futu/Tiger/Saxo/POEMS/FSM etc. if you like.

But political-wise, I don't think the decoupling will happen to that extent. At most, the delisted shares will be relisted elsewhere or privatized. You will still get your money back provided no corporate frauds like Luckin's Coffee case occur.

Alibaba earnings released today

https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/earnings (webcast can be accesed from this link too)

HKEX filing: https://doc.irasia.com/listco/hk/alibabagro...al/2022/res.pdf

Press release: https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/news/press_pdf/p220526.pdf

Presentation slides: https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/presenta...s/pre220526.pdf

Ant Financial paid dividends for the first time too. Based on the 3.94 billion RMB Baba received, the total payout from Ant to all shareholders is estimated to be close to 12 bliion RMB.

https://finance.mingpao.com/fin/instantf/20...%ba%ba%e5%b9%a3