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China's leaders unite to boost confidence
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The opening of 4 th Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) summit in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong Trade Development Council/File)
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enior officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and China used the 4th Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Summit held here on Sept. 11 to 12 as an opportunity to reinvigorate international confidence in the city’s status and role as a global financial, logistics and business hub and as the gateway to the world’s second-largest economy.
Hong Kong’s reputation has taken a beating from more than 14 weekends of antigovernment demonstrations, which were ignited by an extradition bill viewed as Beijing’s interference in the territory’s autonomy under its “one country, two systems” principle. The bill was finally withdrawn early this month.
The leaders in Hong Kong and Beijing both seemed to increasingly realize the deep interdependence between the semiautonomous territory and mainland China, as Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam reiterated during the summit and which was confirmed by data from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).
“By steadfastly upholding the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle and the Basic Law, we can find our way back to reasoned discussion, to the social stability essential to the long-term stability and prosperity and well-being of us all,” Lam told the over 5,000 summit participants from nearly 70 countries.
Meanwhile, vice chairman Ning Jizhe of China’s National Development and Reform Commission said more than a quarter of mainland China’s imports and exports were transported through Hong Kong.
Xie Feng, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s commissioner in Hong Kong, and Chinese Commerce Vice Minister Wang Bingnan assured business leaders from Asia, the Middle East and Europe that Beijing fully supported the “one country, two systems” principle.
The Hong Kong Basic Law guarantees the “one country, two systems” of governance principle whereby the territory is guaranteed that its democratic and capitalist system “shall remain unchanged for 50 years” from July 1, 1997. Under the law, the city’s residents have freedoms that Chinese mainlanders do not.
