Hong Kong elite expected to attend as Shenzhen hosts President Xi Jinping for September celebration of special economic zone’s 40th anniversary

While city leader Carrie Lam will be present, it is not yet known if she or the Hong Kong delegation will secure a meeting with the president
Analysts suggest their success in doing so will signal the city’s ongoing relevance to the neighbouring tech hub despite its recent travails

Shenzhen

William Zheng

Published: 4:02pm, 24 Aug 2020

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Chinese President Xi Jinping will head to neighbouring Shenzhen in September to officiate the 40th anniversary celebration of the technology hub’s special economic zone, according to sources.

Xi is expected to reiterate China’s commitment to its “open-door” policy and chart the direction for what had been dubbed China’s Silicon Valley amid ongoing tensions with the United States.

Hong Kong’s business and political elite were expected to be invited to the event, and the delegation could meet Xi, a Shenzhen official told the Post.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visits a Shenzhen exhibition on Guangdong province’s development over the past 40 years in 2018. Photo: Xinhua

The official said the delegation would include Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as well as Hongkongers who had made “significant contributions” to Shenzhen’s development.

The last time Xi met Lam was in December, when he “fully acknowledged” the work of the chief executive, who travelled to Beijing to deliver her annual report as a year plagued by anti-government protests drew to a close.

If Lam secures a meeting with Xi on her own or with the Hong Kong delegation during his visit to Shenzhen, analysts say it will signal the city remains relevant to its next-door neighbour’s future despite the travails over the past year, including the social unrest, the implementation of the national security law and the ongoing battle with Covid-19.

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While Beijing had not yet confirmed the date of the president’s visit, security and health screening arrangements were being made, with a tentative date set for September 7, the Shenzhen official said.

Another source confirmed it was “likely to take place in the first half” of the month, as Xi would be busy with events related to National Day celebrations later in September.

Lau Siu-kai, vice-chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, Beijing’s semi-official think tank, said he believed Xi would find the time to meet Lam and highlight the importance of Hong Kong and Shenzhen working more closely together.

The president could make use of this opportunity to make it clear that the central government remains supportive of Hong Kong, especially when it comes to fighting the pandemic

Lau Siu-kai, vice-chair of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies

“China’s top leaders have mentioned the importance for the country to rely on the domestic market for growth … and in the face of external suppression, it is also urgent for Hong Kong to strengthen its ties with neighbouring cities,” Lau said.

“Moreover, after the national security law took effect in June, analysts expected Beijing to roll out important measures for Hong Kong’s socio-economic development … So the president could make use of this opportunity to make it clear the central government remains supportive of Hong Kong, especially when it comes to fighting the pandemic.”

A Beijing-based official familiar with the situation said that in addition to reiterating China’s commitment to its “open-door” policy, Xi’s visit would focus on the regional economic integration of the Greater Bay Area and how Shenzhen could play a role as its “technology hub”.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam shakes hands with Beijing Mayor Chen Jining at the 4th Hong Kong/Beijing Co-operation Conference in October 2018. Photo: Simon Song

The ambitious project aims to turn Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and eight other cities in Guangdong province into a financial and technological powerhouse by 2035.

Analysts said Xi’s upcoming trip, along with his recent calls to advance the integration and development of the Yangtze River Delta, shows the Chinese leadership is trying to map out future plans for areas considered the country’s twin economic engines amid unprecedented challenges.

“While both regions face the aftermath of the pandemic, the Yangtze Delta clearly has Shanghai as its core. Its leading city is within the mainland’s system,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

“In the export-oriented Pearl Delta, the situation is a lot more complicated, [because] the international market is very weak, Hong Kong is facing the international repercussions of the national security law’s implementation and Shenzhen is facing the headwinds of the tech war.”

Xi visited China’s eastern Anhui Province from last Tuesday to Friday, chairing a symposium on integration of the Yangtze River Delta in Hefei, the province’s capital city, on Thursday. It was his first such inspection trip since the recent conclusion of the party leadership’s summer conclave in Beidaihe.

During his trip in Anhui, Xi called the circumstances facing the country “grave and complex”, saying the Yangtze River Delta region should rise to assume the role of trailblazer for Chinese technological and industrial innovations.

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Shenzhen was named a special economic zone on August 26, 1980, a major step in late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s efforts to open China up to the globe. The country’s “reform and opening up” policy was launched in 1978, just two years after the end of the Cultural Revolution.

In his previous trip to Shenzhen in October 2018, Xi stressed that such reforms and opening up would not stop.

His visit to Shenzhen next month will also see him inspect the city’s plan to showcase itself as an “exemplary socialist city”, according to the Beijing-based source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

After 40 years, the small fishing town in southern Guangdong province has grown into a tech powerhouse, with an economic output exceeding that of Singapore and Hong Kong.

Shenzhen’s GDP reached 2,693 billion yuan (about US$389 billion) in 2019, while according to the World Bank, Hong Kong and Singapore’s GDP stood at US$366 billion and US$372 billion, respectively.

Former Chinese presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao made similar trips to Shenzhen on the 20th and 30th anniversary of the Special Economic Zone’s founding in 2000 and 2010, respectively.

On September 6, 2010, then-Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and Macau’s leader at the time, Fernando Chui Sai-on, attended the one-hour ceremony officiated by Hu.

At the time, Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, was the only businessman from the city to speak at the event. He shared the limelight with three Shenzhen captains of industry: BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu, China Merchant Holdings chairman Fu Yuning and Tencent Holdings founder Pony Ma Huateng. Li was also granted a one-on-one meeting with Hu before the ceremony.

But the Beijing-based source said such a session with Hong Kong business leaders was not likely this time.

“It’s likely to be a group meeting. It is safer and easier that way in view of the ongoing pandemic. Things are different now,” he said.

Additional reporting by Gary Cheung and Tony Cheung

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: elite may meet xi at shenzhen ceremony

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