Some of their players would be absolutely worthy of Full Member attention. Irfan Ahmed, for instance, is a dangerous Twenty20 batsman (a best of 100 and strike rate of 125) but he pales in comparison to his 23-year-old captain Jamie Atkinson. The 'keeper, who has also played for Durham MCCU and Warwickshire, has been destroying bowling attacks at an average of 37 and strike rate of 132. With that pair at the top of the order, they'll be setting the kinds of targets that will trouble good sides.
And a look at their three most recent results confirms their batting quality: today, they chased down 159 against Zimbabwe; last week they eked over the line against a disciplined Irish attack, and the day before that, they set a target so large that the Netherlands couldn't even get half-way.
Of course, batsmen don't win games on their own, and their ex-Pakistan Under-19 new ball pair of Tanwir Afzal (three for eight against Ireland) and Haseeb Amjad (five for twelve against Italy) help to balance out what has always been a very spin-centric attack. There are so many spin options available that Nizakat Khan often plays as a specialist batsman. And there's always the possibility that Sam Hain might come out of the woodwork. It's not just about players, though - facilities are also vital for any cricketing country.
Personally, I think that Hong Kong have two of the finest grounds anywhere in the world: the Kowloon Cricket Club (right), which offers an incredible skyscape to surround the ground (not to mention an incredible clubhouse), and the Hong Kong Cricket Club (left) are, quite simply, breathtaking. That HKCC image just became my desktop background.
The huge gulf between Full Members and Associate nations simply does not exist any more. Ireland have beaten the West Indies, Afghanistan have beaten Bangladesh and Hong Kong have beaten Zimbabwe all in the matter of a couple of weeks. If that's not a clear and legible sign to the ICC that things need to change, I really don't know what is.