BEIJING, Dec. 13,
2024 President Xi Jinping on Friday said the central
authorities fully support Hong
Kong in aligning with national strategies and fostering new
momentum and advantages for economic development, the Xinhua News
Agency reported.
Xi made the remarks when meeting with Chief Executive of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) John Lee, who is on a duty visit to Beijing. During the meeting, Xi heard a report
from Lee on Hong Kong's current
situation and the HKSAR government's work.
Noting that Hong Kong faces new
development opportunities, Xi said the central authorities would
fully, firmly and accurately implement the "one country, two
systems" policy, and fully support the chief executive and the
HKSAR government in uniting and leading all sectors of society in
actively pursuing reform and progress, and in pursuing prosperity
through innovation and creativity.
Strong backing
According to the HKSAR government, Lee's briefing includes the
latest economic, social and political situation in Hong Kong.
Commending Lee's work over the past year, Xi said Lee had led
the HKSAR government in shouldering responsibilities and delivering
concrete results.
In the past year, the HKSAR government has completed historic
legislation under Article 23 of the HKSAR Basic Law, pooled
resources in boosting economic development, addressed livelihood
problems such as housing and healthcare, strengthened external
exchanges and cooperation, and continuously enhanced Hong Kong's international prestige, thus
further consolidating Hong Kong's
positive momentum of stability and development, Xi said.
The central authorities fully acknowledge the work done by Lee
and the HKSAR government, he said.
Fan Peng, a research fellow at
the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Political
Sciences, said that in 2024, one of the most outstanding
achievements is the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law of
the HKSAR, a historic mission.
"In terms of system design, the legislation makes Hong Kong's accountability to the central
government something that is no longer an abstract political
principle, but internalized in the operation of 'one country, two
systems' and the actual governance of Hong Kong," Fan said.
According to the expert, in the past two years, the HKSAR
government effectively handled a series of thorny issues involving
the sovereign interests of national security. At the same time,
Hong Kong has also carried out
wide-ranging patriotic education, with the social atmosphere
clearly changing.
Lee's report in Beijing came
after the annual Central Economic Work Conference in the capital,
which stressed the need to implement more proactive and impactful
macro policies, expand high-standard opening up and keep foreign
trade and foreign investment stable.
Lau Siu-kai, a consultant to the
Chinese Association of Hong Kong
and Macao Studies think tank, believed that the central government
appreciates that in the past year or two, HKSAR was seeking
opportunities in the Middle East
and Southeast Asian countries. But at the same time, it also
requires Hong Kong to continue to
step up efforts to open up space for international activities.
At such a critical point in time, Xi spoke highly of the HKSAR
under Lee, which actually shows that the central government has
consistently attached importance to the significant status and
positive role of Hong Kong, and
has unswervingly supported the region, and has always been a strong
backing for Hong Kong's
development, Fan said.
Further integration expected
Lee's itinerary, which runs from December
11 to 14, also includes meetings with members of various
central government ministries, Hong
Kong-based media said.
Before Lee's briefing to President Xi, Lee met with Beijing-based business people from
Hong Kong as well as
representatives from top universities in China's capital, calling for better
interaction and integration between the mainland and Hong
Kong.
During a lunch meeting on Thursday with 15 Hong Kong business
representatives in Beijing, Lee
praised the Hong Kong business
community's efforts to promote the complementarity and mutual
benefit of resources between Beijing and Hong
Kong, and expected further strengthening of cooperation and
exchanges, according to Lee's Facebook post.
Lee also encouraged young Hong
Kong people in Beijing to
embrace the unlimited opportunities for personal growth and asked
Hong Kong business communities to
help more Beijing companies list
in Hong Kong and invest overseas
using Hong Kong as a stepping
stone, according to South China Morning Post.
After the lunch meeting, the chief executive held discussions
with leaders from top-tier universities including Peking
University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, Beijing Normal
University, Beihang University and Beijing Institute of
Technology.
In a Facebook post after the meeting, Lee expressed gratitude
for the institutions' continued support for Hong Kong, and hoped to foster cooperation
between mainland and Hong Kong
universities. He called for a joint effort to build a "talent
highland," complementing each other's advantages.
According to Lau, reform and innovation are the two principles
that Hong Kong should follow in
its future governance and development, which makes its cooperation
and integration with the mainland particularly important.
As an international financial hub, Hong Kong has advantages in terms of outbound
business investment and internationalization, while the mainland
has advantages in its number of talents, unified large market and
policy efficiency, Fan noted, emphasizing the complementary
advantages of the two places.
"Under the framework of 'one country, two systems', Hong Kong can integrate the advantages of
governance capacity from both sides, which is more important in the
long run than simply talking about short-term growth," Fan
added.
"The Greater Bay Area is a crucial growth pole in the Chinese
path to modernization. The mainland and Hong Kong have made great explorations not
only in terms of trade and finance, and social connectivity, but
also in terms of policy and institutional connectivity," Fan said,
"The purpose is to drive innovation in science and technology,
business and finance, and create new growth points with the Greater
Bay Area as a whole."
The central government has set high expectations for
Hong Kong in that regard, Fan
said, noting that at a time when the dividends of globalization and
the vitality of global innovation are declining, governance
capacity is particularly important.
HKSAR Financial Secretary Paul Chan
Mo-po, said at a business forum on Wednesday that the number
of foreign and Chinese mainland firms as well as start-ups in
Hong Kong has reached new highs in
2024, and the HKSAR will further help mainland businesses "go
global" and attract foreign investment.
Ahead of Lee's departure on December
9, he met with Ren Hongbin,
head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade
(CCPIT) in Hong Kong. The two
sides exchanged views on strengthening economic and trade exchanges
between the mainland and Hong
Kong, and facilitating the high-quality development of the
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater
Bay Area.
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SOURCE Global Times