BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang urged Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to deepen integration with China, after an election installed a legislature of Beijing loyalists in the Asian financial hub.

"We hope Hong Kong can directly connect to China's development strategy," Mr Li said Wednesday (Dec 22) as the pair met in Beijing.

Ms Lam is making her annual trip to brief China's state leaders on social, political and economic issues in the city.

"It is essential that the central government continues implementing 'one country, two systems'," he added, referring to the 50-year agreement brokered before Britain handed the city back to Chinese rule in 1997.

Ms Lam is expected to sit down with President Xi Jinping later Wednesday for the first time since 2019, according to local news outlet Hong Kong Economic Times.

Ms Lam's visit will be closely watched for signs she has Beijing's backing to run in the March 27 vote for Hong Kong's next chief executive.

Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have also yet to announce the highly anticipated start date for cross-border quarantine-free travel amid the global spread of Omicron.

The meeting would mark the first time Mr Xi has granted an in-person audience with a leader from outside mainland China since he saw Pakistan's president in Beijing in March 2020.

Mr Xi hasn't left the country during the pandemic, as China pursues a Covid Zero strategy of trying to eliminate the virus from its borders.

During Ms Lam's last annual report to China, conducted via video conference in January due to the pandemic, Mr Xi announced Hong Kong must be governed by patriots to ensure the city's stability, an edict that prompted overhauls in the electoral system, including cutting the share of directly elected seats in Sunday's vote.