City Beat | Hong Kong must engage with China’s grand plans for the national economy – and that doesn’t mean being brainwashed
Beijing has broken with past practice by pushing Hong Kong and Macau to get more involved with nationwide development plans, and we should all heed the message
When a ministerial-level Chinese Communist Party theorist came down to Hong Kong to brief officials here on the ruling party’s latest decisions, the city might not have been aware it was the same for neighbouring Macau.
Another senior official from the Development Research Centre of the State Council was simultaneously giving a similar briefing to Macau government officials and representatives from different sectors on the recently concluded 19th party congress.
Hong Kong and Macau being the two only special administrative regions governed by the same ruling formula of “one country, two systems”, these events understandably raised some eyebrows as they marked the very first time since their respective handovers to Chinese sovereignty that Beijing mobilised its representatives to “educate” the two cities on party documents in such a high-profile manner.
Beijing seeks better understanding of Communist Party’s work and goals from Hong Kong establishment
Like it or not, this is a new reality for the two cities. They will have to realise that under President Xi Jinping’s leadership, one country, two systems can no longer be used as a shield to avoid learning more about the overall development direction that the country and party are taking.
So when Leng Rong, head of the party’s literature research office, together with Wang Zhimin, Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong, went into government headquarters last Thursday to brief the city’s establishment on Xi’s political report to the party congress in October, it was not only the first event of its kind but could also herald the start of more to come.
Briefing lined up for senior Hong Kong officials on Xi Jinping’s Communist Party congress report
After the twice-a-decade gathering of the party, which further consolidated the power of Xi, who has set the ambitious goal for China’s rejuvenation and transformation into a strong nation by the middle of the century, Beijing has started a nationwide propaganda campaign by sending officials to all provinces to further explain the president’s thought and implications of his speech.
