Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), praised the company for its optimistic stance toward China and the city’s development, as he underscored Beijing’s support for maintaining Hong Kong’s “unique status and strengths” during the meeting on Friday.
“Xia emphasised it is China’s long-standing national policy to ensure the comprehensive, accurate and unswerving implementation of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle,” the office said in a statement issued on Friday.
“The central government will always fully support Hong Kong in maintaining its unique status and strengths, maintain a free, open and regularised business environment and create better conditions for enterprises from different countries and regions to develop in Hong Kong.”
In the meeting, which was also attended by HKMAO Executive Deputy Director Zhou Ji, Xia called on HSBC Group to continue to play to its strengths, actively participate in the country’s high-quality development and opening-up, and contribute to Hong Kong’s prosperity.
Peter Wong Tung-shun, non-executive chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and David Liao, co-chief executive of HSBC Asia-Pacific, were among those in the delegation led by Tucker.
