I somewhat agree with you MyCsPiTTa. I've been looking for a science position for the last couple of months in HK (purely because I don't want to leave yet) but have had no luck.... I also find that people don't usually return emails or phone calls even if you are just enquiring about the department.
From what I can gather, it's pretty hard to get money from the government for research in HK and if some university departments are lucky enough to get one, it's usually only substantial enough to hire a Ph.D student or research assistant as they are much cheaper than a post-doc or research fellow. In addition, the university will sometimes be required to pay half of that grant so sometimes the selection process is rigorous. Furthermore, I know at least at HKU, they are not big a keeping talent - not saying I'm best there is - but there are a few people in my department who are well known in American, UK and Australia for being the best at what they do (which is main reason why I came for the experience) but HKU makes it harder and harder every year for them to state why they need a raise and/or extended contract - so most of them leave the country and go elsewhere.
But saying that, expats don't get higher salaries - at least from my experience. There is pay scale at HKU and unless you can adequately justify why you need a higher salary than what your experience level entitles you to than you're going to get what everyone else gets. Though, salary in HK compared to the same level in Australia is much lower.