HONG KONG – CHINA John Lee wants to attract foreign talent to Hong Kong, but the security law causes fear

In his first programmatic speech, the city’s chief executive said that Xi Jinping’s draconian directives will be followed. New national security measures are coming. Citizen expectations are low; the markets reject the new real estate plan.

Hong Kong () – The government wants to attract foreign talent to improve the economic competitiveness of the city, threatened by dynamic realities such as Singapore. This was the main point of John Lee’s first programmatic speech, delivered today: a difficult goal, taking into account that the chief executive of the city – who took office in July – said he wants to strengthen national security, one of the aspects that , according to foreign investors, makes the former British colony less attractive.

Due in part to the effects of the strict regulations to combat Covid-19, the Hong Kong economy is going through difficult times. In the second quarter of the year, the city’s GDP recorded an annual drop of 1.3%. To promote recovery, Lee proposes two-year visas to foreigners who have earned 2.5 million Hong Kong dollars (320,000 euros) in the last 12 months and to graduates of the 100 best universities in the world with at least three years of experience. labor.

This effort will have to go hand in hand with more stringent national security regulations, Lee said. It was precisely the adoption of the draconian security law in June 2020 -imposed by Beijing to hit the pro-democracy front- that caused more than 200,000 citizens and foreigners to leave the city and take refuge abroad.

Many of the expatriates are journalists who have fled. As the International Federation of Journalists recalled in recent days, 12 newspapers and websites in the city were closed after the introduction of the security regulations.

On October 16, at the opening of the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping said that the measures adopted in Hong Kong had brought stability after the chaos caused by the 2019 (pro-democracy) protests. Lee made it clear that he will continue to stand Beijing’s instructions to the letter, and announced new legislative interventions in areas such as cybersecurity and “false information”.

The restrictions will affect fundraising activities. In this sense, it must be remembered that on October 26 the final stage of the trial against the Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun. The cardinal is accused of not correctly registering a humanitarian fund of which he was the administrator together with five well-known members of the Democratic Front, also charged. Until its closure in October 2021, the 612 Fund assisted thousands of pro-democracy protesters who participated in the 2019 demonstrations.

Lee’s speech generates low expectations among citizens. According to a survey published yesterday by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, almost 50% of those surveyed have low expectations, or none at all, following the words of the city’s prime minister.

The local stock market also sent negative signals: at the end of the day, the stock index lost 2.4%. Lee’s real estate plan (72,000 new homes in five years) and the maintenance of house price freezes are not convincing.