Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin addresses an investors forum in Hong Kong Wednesday. (Jeff Topping/CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets/Associated Press)

Former U.S. vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience, emerged in Hong Kong on Wednesday to share her views from "Main Street U.S.A." with a group of high-flying global investors.

In her first trip to the region, the former Alaska governor addressed an annual conference of investors in what was billed as a wide-ranging talk about governance, economics and U.S. and Asian affairs.

It marked Palin's first major appearance since she resigned as governor in July, and the speech's location and international scope could help boost her credentials ahead of a possible bid for president in 2012.

Palin left office in part because of the toll of multiple ethics complaints filed against her. Almost all of the complaints were dismissed, but she amassed more than $500,000 in legal fees.

In her speech — closed to reporters — Palin argued that many average Americans are uncomfortable with health-care reforms that infringe on private enterprise, said Chris Palmer, an American fund manager for Gartmore Investment Ltd.

In an apparent reference to renewed tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese that have led to violent riots, Palin mentioned China's ethnic problems, arguing they are "a sign that China lacks mechanisms to deal with regional issues," Palmer said.

She also criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve's massive intervention in the economy over the last year and praised the conservative economic policies of the late U.S. president Ronald Reagan and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, according to another attendee who declined to be named.

Palin, who burst on the U.S. political scene last year when she was chosen as Republican Senator John McCain's running mate in the race for the White House, was ridiculed during the campaign after contending her state's proximity to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience.