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Xi Jinping
Hong KongPolitics

Beijing official says Xi Jinping has given ‘one country, two systems’ a status boost

Deputy commissioner at Chinese foreign ministry’s office in the city urges Hong Kong to seize opportunities offered by president’s vision

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Song Ruan said he hoped journalists would ‘have objective and comprehensive coverage’ of the outcomes of the congress. Photo: Sam Tsang
Tony Cheung
A top Chinese diplomat in Hong Kong said on Tuesday that the “one country, two systems” principle under which the city is governed had been elevated to a new status in the nation’s political system, after President Xi Jinping laid out his guiding principles earlier this month.

And Song Ruan, deputy commissioner of Beijing’s foreign ministry office in Hong Kong, said the city must seize the historic opportunities offered by Xi’s vision.

At the Communist Party congress, which concluded last week, Xi proposed melding Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy with Beijing’s ultimate authority over it. Observers said that purported vision signalled the central government’s determination to curb threats to national unity.
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The president also listed the implementation of one country, two systems as one of 14 points in his “Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, the country’s newest defining political dogma.

One country, two systems is the principle under which Hong Kong has been promised a high degree of autonomy since it was handed from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

Speaking at a briefing with foreign journalists in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Song said that, after Xi’s report to the congress, Beijing’s commitment to the key principle had become one of the basic policies of developing socialism.

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