“I’ve reflected the hopes of the Hong Kong public to see a reopening of the border for personnel flow. Yet I don’t have any concrete details on that as of now,” she told a press briefing on Wednesday evening after wrapping up her meeting with Xi and Premier Li Keqiang earlier in the day.

“However, the two leaders have recognised the effectiveness of Covid-19 control policies in Hong Kong in the past year. Therefore we have to keep working hard for the border reopening to happen as soon as possible,” she said.

In acknowledging Lam’s work and that of the government over the past year, Xi noted that social stability had been restored in Hong Kong through the national security law imposed by Beijing in June last year following the anti-government protest chaos of 2019.

“In the past year, Hong Kong has consolidated the situation in which the city turned from chaos [during the 2019 social unrest] to peace, and has continued to develop in a positive direction,” he said.

“The coronavirus pandemic has been effectively and obviously contained, the economy has gradually recovered, and society has remained stable.”

Lam was in Beijing for her annual duty visit to report on her work over the past 12 months, the first in-person session since 2019 after last year’s meeting was held online.

Wednesday’s meeting came just three months ahead of the March 27 chief executive poll, and Lam has yet to indicate if she intends to seek a second term. Before leaving for the capital on Monday, she shrugged off any suggestion the trip would include a pitch to state leaders for a possible re-election bid.

At her press briefing on Wednesday, Lam said she was only in Beijing to report on her work, not to talk about the chief executive race.

“The sole purpose of me coming to Beijing is to report my work as the chief executive in the past year. I have not done anything other than that and of course I have not thought about things related to my own future,” she said.

“My term as the chief executive will end in June next year. I will do everything needed in the capacity of chief executive in this period of time.”

State news agency Xinhua issued a press release soon after, summarising the discussion but conspicuously absent was a to-do list from Xi for Lam in the remainder of her tenure, an omission analysts said was deliberate in not giving away the slightest indication on who could be the next city leader.

The full sit-down with Xi was not open to the media, with only a handful of journalists from hand-picked outlets allowed to cover its first five minutes.

Xi noted that in the past year, Lam’s administration had firmly enforced the national security law, and deepened the city’s ties with the mainland.

“The authority and dignity of the city’s rule of law was safeguarded. Proactive measures were taken to push forward the city’s integration with the nation’s development plans,” he said.

The president also praised Lam for leading the administration in amending electoral laws to implement Beijing’s resolutions on overhauling the political system. The Election Committee and Legislative Council elections were held in September and on Sunday, respectively.

“Firm steps were taken to push forward the development of democracy that suits Hong Kong’s actual situation,” he said.

“The elections had manifested the democratic rights which allowed Hong Kong compatriots to be masters of their own home, and implemented the principles of patriots administering Hong Kong. It also established a political system which ensures the balanced participation of various sectors.”

Xi said the successful elections showed the overhauled system could help to ensure the city’s long-term stability and prosperity.

“The new electoral system is in line with ‘one country, two systems’ and Hong Kong’s actual situation … it is a good system,” Xi said, referring to the principle under which the city is governed.

In November, Xi was hailed as the creator of a body of “theories and thoughts” in a historical Chinese Communist Party resolution, which also retold the “major achievements and historical experiences of the party’s centennial struggle”.

The president on Wednesday noted that “one country, two systems” was mentioned in the resolution.

“The extraordinary journey that Hong Kong has taken since reunifying with the motherland more than 20 years ago fully proved that the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ was beneficial for safeguarding the fundamental interests of the nation, Hong Kong, and its compatriots,” he said.

Xi said the central government would be firm and unswerving on the governing principle.

“We believe that through deepening such implementation and continual improvement of the systems, the merit of ‘one country, two systems’ will continue to be shown,” he said.

“Hong Kong compatriots will be able to promote the glorious tradition of loving the nation and the city, and join hands with all Chinese people in fighting for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

05:34

Pro-establishment bloc dominates Hong Kong Legislative Council after record-low turnout for election

Pro-establishment bloc dominates Hong Kong Legislative Council after record-low turnout for election

Lam responded by thanking Xi for his acknowledgement, and said the past 12 months had been “an extraordinary year”. She also thanked Xi for the support and trust that Beijing placed in Hong Kong.

A video of the meeting’s early minutes were broadcast, with Lam seen sitting to Xi’s right at a large table, at times taking copious notes. Xi’s last public meeting with a non-mainland official was with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in February 2020.

Wednesday’s session – in which Xi was seen without a mask and also Lam briefly when she spoke a few words at the start – was attended by some of China’s most powerful officials, including: Vice-Premier Han Zheng, who heads the Communist Party’s leading group on Hong Kong and Macau affairs; state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi; United Front Work Department head You Quan; Xi’s chief of staff Ding Xuexiang; and Guo Shengkun, secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the top party agency in charge of law enforcement.

The State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) director Xia Baolong, his deputy Zhang Xiaoming and Beijing’s Hong Kong liaison office director, Luo Huining, were also present.

Earlier on Wednesday, Premier Li credited Lam with containing the pandemic and rebooting the city’s economy, while urging the government to redouble its efforts to improve the lives of average residents.

Li said while Beijing fully supported the Hong Kong government and its chief executive, the city must “proactively connect” with the nation’s overarching development strategies.

“We hope the Hong Kong government can continue to contain the pandemic and foster economic recovery,” he said. “[The administration] must also make efforts in improving people’s livelihoods, so the vast majority of residents can have a greater sense of gain.”

Li did not elaborate on how the administration could best accomplish that, but in a speech in July, HKMAO chief Xia said he hoped the city could gradually “bid farewell to subdivided flats and ‘cage homes’”, referring to tiny, cramped living spaces rented by some of the city’s poorest residents.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that in her meeting with Li, Lam said various sectors in Hong Kong hoped quarantine-free cross-border travel – which would only involve Guangdong province initially – could be resumed as soon as possible.

Apart from Lam, Xi and Li also met Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng on Wednesday, and told him Beijing fully acknowledged the work done by him and his government.

Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of semi-official think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said Xi was cautious not to give any hint about the city’s leadership race.

“The central government does not want any elements of social instability or to give any chance to anti-China forces, so Xi just focused on the legitimacy of the central government’s new Hong Kong policies,” he said.

Xi was also conscious not to heap too much praise, Lau added, nor ask Lam to focus on solving livelihood issues, even though these remained Beijing’s top priority for Hong Kong.

“If he mentioned there are unresolved problems, there would be too much political speculation, so I think he doesn’t want people to have any chance to speculate at all.”

On the border reopening, Polytechnic University political scientist Chan Wai-keung also said he believed Beijing seemed to prefer letting Hong Kong and Guangdong work out measures without the need for the central government to intervene too directly.

“Beijing may not want to be seen as siding with Hong Kong too much to press local provincial governments to strike an early deal with Hong Kong,” Chan said.

Legislator Lo Wai-kwok, chairman of the pro-business Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong, expressed disappointment that Lam had not seemed to make any progress on the border reopening, even though this was somewhat expected given the spread of Omicron.

Dr Leung Chi-chiu, a respiratory expert, said he also believed the rise in Omicron cases had delayed the reopening of the border.

With the Covid-19 situation largely stable, Hong Kong’s economic recovery became more entrenched in the third quarter, with real gross domestic product growing 5.4 per cent year on year. Full-year government projections for 2021 indicate GDP will grow between 5.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent year on year.