Chinese Parliamentary Sessions 2013

March 2013 sees the annual meeting of the two legislative and consultative bodies of China, where major policies are decided and key government officials appointed. The National People's Congress (NPC) is held in the Great Hall of the People in China's capital, Beijing, and with 2,987 members, is the largest parliament in the world. It gathers alongside the People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) whose members represent various groups of society.

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POLITICS

Message from Xi to Hong Kong: think of national interest

President also expressed hope the prosperity and stability of the city will be safeguarded

Monday, 18 March, 2013, 9:47am

Tony Cheung in Beijing and Colleen Lee

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Xi Jinping. Photo: Xinhua

President Xi Jinping, in his first open speech as head of state, appealed to Hongkongers to uphold the interests of the nation and the city.

"Compatriots in the Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions should put emphasis on the country, Hong Kong and Macau's overall interest," Xi told delegates at the closing session of the National People's Congress in Beijing yesterday.

"[This is] so as to safeguard and foster the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macau," he said.

Last March, about two weeks before Hong Kong's chief executive election, then vice-president Xi had also told delegates to the legislature that the city should put the country's overall interest above their personal concerns.

Xi's speech yesterday came shortly before new Premier Li Keqiang urged Hong Kong to make good and full use of the central government's policy initiatives that benefit the city.

Local NPC deputies and a political analyst said Li's comment referred to some of the 36 economic, financial, tourism, social and Guangdong-Hong Kong co-operation measures announced during his 2011 visit to the city, as well as to the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa) initiatives that had not been fully utilised.

Asked if he had plans to introduce any other measures to help Hong Kong after his "gifts" two years ago, Li said: "One has to take the goods in the gift box out one by one, in order to make good and full use of them."

"The two sides [the mainland and Hong Kong] have to work together," the new premier said, adding that Beijing would do its best to advance the initiatives that were good for Hongkongers and would keep the city prosperous over the long term.

Hailing the Hong Kong community as open, inclusive and vibrant, Li said there was room for deeper bilateral co-operation.

Political commentator Johnny Lau Yui-siu said it was evident that some of the Cepa and preferential measures in place were not being fully utilised.

Li's remarks did not rule out the possibility of more preferential socio-economic initiatives being rolled out when necessary, he said.

Xi's speech, meanwhile, was to remind Hongkongers to uphold the nation's interests, Lau said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Message from Xi to Hong Kong: think of national interest

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This article is now closed to comments

cwcwilson Mar 21st 2013
3:22am

It's not about HKers think they are superior or if China a great nation or not. The problem is a one system within a different system. Hong Kong as a semi-democratic city is under China, a social-communistic country. These two systems have different approach and people's mindset in both system is obviously different. While HKers and most people in the world believe that democracy is the right and best way to go, its way to become truly democratic is being blocked by a China's central government-- a different political system. In the speech, Xi reminds "Hongkongers to uphold the nation's interests". From that, we can tell that there is distant expectations between HKers and the central government. Note that I said "between HKers and central government" not HK gov and central gov. In democratic perspective, the government should represent and act to the greatest benefit of its people. In other words, people's interests is above all. In contrast, what Xi asks HKers to do is the opposite. He wants HKers to surrender interests of their own and adopt the greater interests of the country. It is basically an incompatibility. It is like running a mac application inside a windows, it will simply crash.

silent is the night Mar 18th 2013
9:26pm

Contrary to what jasonhytse said in his posting, this Old Hong Kong, though never lived overseas outside Hongkong for more than 3 months and was born here decades ago plus grew up during the British colonial rule and after the handover in 1997, I strongly think that the Chinese government should go democratic one day as its economy develops and her people get richer,followed by more literates.The Chinese leaders should have far-eyesight to let/make our beloved Hong Kong as the foundation or starting point of China's democratic political system by letting Hongkongers to have a geniune universal suffrage of our chief executive in 2017 and our lawmakers in 2020 through a universal suffrage (that matches the United Nations standard).Once it is successful and workable,then our experience can be used on Mainland China---a prosperous and democratic China where the officials will have to be responsible to their people who vote them in and corruption will greatly reduce due to proper monitoring ! Right ?

rthk Mar 18th 2013
8:16pm

China is GREAT GREAT and GREAT place to live/to work/to invest china is most safe organized country and nation
all world is jealous of china's progress/HKers are lack of self-confidence.
if so called HKers dont like mainland the i should say they can cancel their home return cards and live some where else.all hkers are surviving their lives becuase of mainland's kindness on hkers
SAR departments failed in every field
jasonhytse i toally agree with your comments GOD Bless you
our best wishes for greater china

LunarRepublic Mar 19th 2013
2:34am

"SAR departments failed in every field"
If they're failing in every field, Hong Kong would be in huge turmoil right now. And obviously it's not.

LunarRepublic Mar 19th 2013
2:32am

Ha. No.
I'll agree that China is a huge nation with a knack for organization, but safest and greatest?
If I can recall, people couldn't see the sky over Beijing for a whole week and I don't they can still see it even now. Families are still being forcibly kicked out of their homes by corrupt officials, people are still being arrested for speaking their minds about the government, and overall human rights is considerably inferior to many other countries. I'll be frank, people are't eager to imitate a country that controls the media like puppeteers and runs tanks over its own citizens.
Oh sure, China's a hub for manufacturing, but a lot of the factories are just making products for foreign companies. Really how many big-name internationally known Chinese corporations are there? Sure there's Lenovo, but even then it's headquartered in the United States and incorporated in Hong Kong. I'm sure there are some and I know China's made major contributions to science and tech, but they're not exactly earning ire from other countries due to their greatness.

Jasoooon Mar 18th 2013
4:46pm

I live in China, Born in Australia and lived there for 26 years, have HK ID and after 6 years of living here in Southern China, I have changed my views. I use to believe democracy was the one and only way (possibly influenced by too many American movies). Whereas now I am open minded. I believe that the current chinese political system is working and benefits a large part of the population. Ever since the 80's, the people of China have benefited and it was this system that dragged millions out of poverty. The system isnt perfect and no system ever is but its working right now. It has lots of problems that need to be addressed like corruption, pollution and letting me use gmail (JJ).
Hong Kong has turned into a city, that protest for the sake of protesting. During these past few years, I actually dont know what they are complaining about. If I look back at 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, 2001 The War of Terror, 2003 SARS. Hong Kong was really in trouble. So the Chinese goverment that everyone seems to hate, sent tourist, sent Ipo's, sent Yuan currency exchanges to support the HK people. It also provides many initiatives to HK companies to invest in China.
At a time when the whole world wants to have closer ties with China (maybe not the Japanese Govt), when business leaders are all learning Chinese, Where everyone basically agrees its China's Century. Shouldnt the people of HK just have a think, is it so bad that we are getting looked after?

rthk Mar 18th 2013
8:25pm

likingming Mar 18th 2013
5:49pm

Most HKers are lack of self-confidence.
Following china-bashing, HKers would think they are superior than people in China.
And that is why HKers have problems of their chinese identity !

Byebye Mar 18th 2013
1:34pm

China is a big country, and to govern such a huge place with a huge population is not easy. Hong Kong is small, not only in area, but its population is minute, compared to China. Undeniably HK has been influenced not only by Britain during the colonial era over a period of 100+ years, but its many people have the chance of exposure to other countries and dealings with the influx of foreigners into HK, or in their study or living or travel overseas. It may not be incorrect to say China is now a new created country with new younger leadership who too have studied or lived overseas, and I am sure we all can see the Chinese in China are doing the same things many Hongkongers did years ago and are still doing right now, the exposure of the outside world (influence, force...). HK has lots of expertise as well as governing law and orders to offer to China with constructive ideas and experiences, and these can be complimentary to China. To realise HK needs the support of China is an under statement, just look practically and realistically, what if there is an outside invasion or threat, or even natural disasters. It is a fact HK and China are now one, therefore it may not be a bad idea to identfy the good and bad, the pro and con, to work together. I quote a saying I learned today - "All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you."

hodfords Mar 18th 2013
12:23pm

There are so many of these armchair sinophiles who love the Motherland but they all live in Hong Kong and not China. Why? 90 out of 100 Chinese citizens would prefer to live in Hong Kong rather than China given a choice. Why?
It would be interesting to see how constant Captam's love for China would be when he gets turfed out of his home without any compensation because his neighbourhood has been re-zoned for some infrastructure project.
It's one of those cases of "it's-great-if-I'm-not-the-one-who-is-being-screwed"