City has a seat in nation’s development drive

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China started off with General Secretary Xi Jinping delivering a report that summarized the Party’s achievements over the past five years and shed light on the country’s future development. As the CPC is the governing party and its Standing Committee of the Central Committee is the central leadership, the report delivered by the general secretary at the Party Congress points the direction of the nation’s future development.

The report contains, among other matters, an essential appraisal of the situation the Party and the country are in, sets clear goals, and makes strategic plans for the country’s future development. This model of governance is a key enabler of China’s institutional advantages of formulating stable and visionary national policies. The report, therefore, speaks volumes of its importance, and all administrators in Hong Kong are supposedly striving to grasp its gist. Indeed, the report contains far-reaching implications for the future development of Hong Kong under the “one country, two systems” framework, and there are several aspects we should pay heed to.

The first aspect concerns the current situation and future development of Hong Kong. Apart from reiterating that “one country, two systems” is the finest institutional arrangement that Hong Kong should persistently uphold to safeguard its stability and prosperity in the long run, the report concludes that the central government’s comprehensive jurisdiction over the special administrative region has been effectively implemented in the process of restoring order and rule of law in the city — by putting an end to the subversive social unrest in 2019-20 with the introduction of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, and by electoral reforms. Hong Kong has now refocused on socioeconomic development after regaining order and stability, paving the way for long-term healthy development. The central government will continue to offer Hong Kong its unflinching support along the way, on the one hand assisting the city in resolving its deep-seated problems alongside advancing its economic development and raising the living standard of its residents, and on the other hand, facilitating the city’s efforts to better integrate its own development into the nation’s overall development strategy and bringing its advantages into full play.

With the basic situation in mind, the next step is to understand the central authorities’ specific plans for Hong Kong in future national development under “one country, two systems”. The “major regional strategy” mentioned in the report is a good place to start for Hong Kong. In the new journey of building China into a modern socialist country, the central government insists on pursuing high-quality development to boost the dynamism and reliability of the domestic economy while engaging at a higher level in the global economy. The “major regional strategy”, which aims to establish a regional economic landscape that makes good use of complementary strengths to attain high-quality development, is one of the strategies designed to realize these development goals. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with its global collaboration and division of labor among high-end value chains, is expected to occupy a high-end position in the global economic structure. As the collaboration and development initiatives between Hong Kong and the mainland GBA cities gather momentum, Hong Kong will enjoy more exceptional growth opportunities. In anticipation of these national development goals, it is expected that copious amounts of resources and essential production materials will be channeled into the construction of the GBA.

Hong Kong’s role and functions under “one country, two systems” should not be limited to the regional strategy of the GBA but rather be expanded in lockstep with the new journey of building China into a modern socialist country. It is what truly defines Hong Kong’s integration into the nation’s development strategy. Furthermore, “Chinese-style modernization” is one of the highlights of the report, and it will be achieved by avoiding the mistakes Western countries made in their pursuit of modernization while optimizing China’s own development strategy and unique path toward the ultimate goal. Hong Kong has always played a crucial role in the country’s modernization process, such as during the early years of the reform and opening-up process in the late 1980s and the 1990s; it will continue to play a significant role and expand its involvement in the final stage of the country’s modernization. Hong Kong society should keep a clear mind about its strengths and explore ways to better play its role in the country’s modernization drive.

The author is senior research officer of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.