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Opinion
Mr. Shangkong
by George Chen
Mr. Shangkong
by George Chen

Beijing's closed door meeting with Hong Kong tycoons erodes trust

Closed-door session with city's tycoons just another example of misstep in Hong Kong policy

We all know how busy Chinese president Xi Jinping can be, so when he calls for a meeting, it must be top priority. For the richest Hong Kong tycoons, it is unusual to meet Xi in a group meeting, particularly to discuss politics rather than business.

Last week, Xi greeted a delegation of senior figures from Hong Kong's business sector, including Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing, whose relations with Beijing were believed to be at a turning point after his business empire apparently tried to offload assets in the world's No 2 economy and shift more focus to Europe.

Such a high-profile group meeting led by former and first chief executive Tung Chee-hwa received a lot of media and public attention at a time when frustrations have grown following Beijing's controversial decision to screen and limit candidates for the 2017 chief executive election.

Whoever initiated the meeting must believe Xi's appearance and involvement could help ease the situation by reassuring Hong Kong people that Beijing' policy remained unchanged with respect to the "One country, two systems" developed by China's late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. Unfortunately, this meeting may be just another misstep by top officials in charge of Hong Kong affairs in Beijing.

Hong Kong has been a business and market-oriented society for many decades. The influence of business leaders like Li Ka-shing is huge.

[The decision] reflects the very old-fashioned strategy Beijing wants to continue to play

It may be too early to say whether Li's influence has weakened in Hong Kong society, but it is for sure that Hongkongers are entering a new era, in particular the younger generation with pro-democracy student leader Joshua Wong as a clear new representative figure.

Even before Li and other tycoons went to Beijing to meet Xi to discuss Hong Kong's political situation, many Hongkongers were already unhappy enough with the so-called property monopoly that helped to kill countless small and private businesses in the city. We can't deny that this income gap is one of the key causes of the current political storm in Hong Kong.

The invitation to a small group of business leaders to meet Xi in Beijing for a closed-door meeting naturally left the general public in Hong Kong in deep doubt over whom Beijing really believes should legitimately represent Hongkongers' long-term interests.

The decision to speak to business leaders, not legislators or key pro-democracy representatives, reflects the very old-fashioned strategy Beijing wants to continue to play. That is, money talks and Hong Kong is a city where tycoons matter more than the rest of seven million residents. Mutual trust between Beijing and the general public in Hong Kong is now fading away quickly.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Beijing's meeting of tycoons erodes trust
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