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Opinion | How Hong Kong can take on a more frontier role in China’s development
City can go beyond ‘superconnector’ role to be a ‘co-architect of rules’ and become more proactive in areas Beijing deems strategically critical
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On December 16, Chinese President Xi Jinping, on receiving a work report from Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, said the city should proactively align with the country’s 15th five-year plan and better integrate into, and serve, the national development agenda.
In recent days, discussion of the coming plan across the Hong Kong government and wider society has underscored a growing consensus behind deeper integration with the mainland.
While the 14th five-year plan spoke of “maintaining” Hong Kong’s strengths, the draft proposal for the 15th plan upgrades the formulation to “promoting” the city’s long-term prosperity and stability. The subtle but consequential shift signals that Beijing expects the focus of Hong Kong governance to accelerate from restoring order towards driving development and prosperity.
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That adjustment is also a calibrated response to a rapidly changing international environment. With global technology and industrial supply chains being reshaped and the strategic competition between China and the United States deepening, Hong Kong’s “superconnector” role faces greater external uncertainty.
The proposal emphasises support for Hong Kong to build an international innovation and technology centre and become a global hub for top-tier talent, positioning these ambitions within national strategies such as technological self-reliance, high-level opening up and yuan internationalisation.
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This implies that Hong Kong is expected not only to act as a bridge but also to play a more proactive, even frontier, role in areas Beijing deems strategically critical.
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