Chinese President’s letter to Hong Kong entrepreneurs seen as ‘special care’ for city
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
China’s President Xi Jinping was responding to a letter penned by several Hong Kong business figures to promote their contributions.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
HONG KONG – Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Hong Kong entrepreneurs to boost China’s development in a letter the financial hub’s business community welcomed as a sign of encouragement.
“I hope you will continue to give full play to your strengths and actively integrate into the overall situation of national reform and opening up,” Mr Xi wrote, according to an Aug 1 report by the official Xinhua News Agency.
The Chinese leader was responding to a letter penned by several Hong Kong business figures with ancestral ties to Ningbo, a major shipping and industrial city in the eastern province of Zhejiang, China. Mr Xi served as provincial party chief there from 2002 to 2007.
While Mr Xi has called on Hong Kong to retain the “distinctive status and advantages” that separate it from China, he has also tasked city officials with eliminating dissent against the ruling Communist Party. That crackdown has eroded freedoms and caused anxiety among foreign firms over the future of the rule of law in the financial hub.
Mr Adrian Cheng, chief executive officer of New World Development, said the message showed Mr Xi’s “special care” for the city’s business sector, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported.
The city’s leader John Lee thanked Mr Xi for his response, calling it “deeply encouraging and inspiring”, and vowed to encourage local businesses to “better integrate into the overall development of the country”.
Hong Kong’s economy is under pressure from a grinding slowdown in China, the city’s main trading partner and source of tourism. The former British colony’s real estate sector has also been hit by high interest rates that drive up mortgage costs, with home prices falling to the lowest since 2016.
Mr Xi last publicly responded to a letter from Hong Kong in 2023, when he replied to students from Pui Kiu Middle School to encourage them to contribute to the city and China.
The Ningbo group wrote to the Chinese leader to promote their contributions to Hong Kong’s economy and more, according to the South China Morning Post. BLOOMBERG
