‘One country, two systems’ is key to a prosperous future for Hong Kong, former Beijing official Xu Ze says
President of The Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies says city and mainland China both benefit from principle
A former Beijing official declared on Wednesday that Hong Kong will have “bigger developments” and become more prosperous if it holds fast to Beijing’s “one country, two systems” governing principle and use its strength to serve the nation’s needs.
The Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies’ president Xu Ze, formerly a deputy director of Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, also said the one country, two systems principle has worked well with China’s reform and opening up since the late 1970s.
Under the principle, Hong Kong was guaranteed a high degree of autonomy after it was handed over from British to Chinese rule in 1997. It states that the city’s “capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years”.
Speaking at a forum on regional integration and the financial industry in Hong Kong, Xu noted that even before the principle was officially laid down in the Chinese constitution in 1982, China’s late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping had told Hong Kong governor Murray MacLehose in 1979 that Hong Kong would continue to be a capitalist city after the handover.
“Shortly after [the meeting], the central government set up four special economic zones [in the mainland to seek cooperation with] Hong Kong and Macau, and to attract foreign capital,” Xu recalled, in a reference to the southern Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen and Shantou.