John Lee stakes everything on the Belt and Road Initiative
At the Beijing Forum, the governor magnified Hong Kong's potential as a financial and logistical hub for countries involved in Xi Jinping's "new thirst road". An attempt to gather "results" to counter the decline that the harsh repression of the 2019 protests and the Covid season have brought with them.
Beijing (Asia News/Agencies) - Chasing economic recovery, Hong Kong is aiming for a key role in the future of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This is what emerges from the words of Governor John Lee, who on Wednesday, together with fifteen other government officials, took part in the third BRI forum hosted in the Chinese capital.
In his speeches during the forum, Lee underlined how the Special Administrative Region could be a fundamental node for the project. Lee, in addition to informing participants about the work done by Hong Kong to improve not only its infrastructure but also regulations, emphasized the bidirectional role it can play in connecting China to the BRI countries.
In his words, Hong Kong, in fact, does not exclusively constitute an important channel for capital connectivity - thanks to its role as a financial city which until now has acted as an access point for global finance towards China. It also serves as an important crossroads for passengers and goods from all over the world to China and vice versa. It is precisely thanks to this duality that Hong Kong will strive to make the most of its role as a financial, commercial and seaside city center to advance regional cooperation in the context of the BRI.
The city's role in the BRI has indeed gained importance over the years. Lee noted that between 2017 and 2022, the number of regional headquarters that Belt and Road countries have established in Hong Kong doubled from 83 to 168, growing at an average rate of more than 15% per year, and as investments also recorded an increase of 70%, going from 70 billion dollars to 120 billion dollars in 2021.
For governor John Lee, the success of the BRI is a vital challenge: supported by Beijing, he became governor of the city of Hong Kong in 2022, replacing Carrie Lam, in an election in which he was the only participant. Due to his firmly pro-Beijing positions, he enjoys very low popularity in the city. According to a survey by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, in March 2022 it scored a confidence index of just 34 points out of 100.
After the 2019 protests, Lee finds himself having to converge what remains of China's "One Country, Two Systems" policy with the economic needs of Hong Kong, whose population appears increasingly pessimistic due to the harsh repression (which has led many financial groups to move their headquarters to Singapore) but also the economic and real estate crisis, a particularly tangible pessimism among the new generations.
At the BRI Forum, Beijing expressed its willingness to sign new agreements worth 15 billion Yuan to be allocated in particular to infrastructure and energy transition projects. Precisely these investments could play an important role in the political destiny of Lee, who since his "election" has asked to be judged "on results".
On October 25, the governor will share for the second time his priorities for the city's political direction which could reserve the BRI and the investments obtained a key role in countering the sense of pessimism and the pressing social divisions that dominate Hong Kong today.
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