Hong Kong: 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,” Xi wrote, according to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency last Thursday.
The Chinese leader was responding to a letter penned by several Hong Kong business figures descended from the mainland city of Ningbo, a major shipping and industrial city in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Xi served as provincial party chief there from 2002 to 2007.
While Xi has called on Hong Kong to retain the “distinctive status and advantages” that separate it from mainland China, he’s 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 hub.
Adrian Cheng, chief executive officer of New World Development Co, said the message showed Xi’s “special care” for the city’s business sector, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported. — Bloomberg
