Hong Kong, Dec 22 (AP) Chinese Premier Li Keqiang praised the Hong Kong authorities’s efforts in revitalizing the economic system because it rolls again COVID-19 restrictions, in a gathering on Thursday with the territory’s chief in Beijing.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee is on his first journey to the capital to ship an annual year-end report back to leaders. He is predicted to fulfill with President Xi Jinping to debate the town’s political, financial and COVID-19 conditions earlier than returning to Hong Kong on Saturday.

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Li expressed his approval of Lee’s work over the previous six months, throughout which a lot of the metropolis’s COVID-19 restrictions had been relaxed, serving to to revive Hong Kong’s picture as a vibrant monetary hub.

“The fates of Hong Kong and the motherland are closely intertwined,” Li stated. “I hope the Hong Kong authorities will unite and lead the individuals of Hong Kong to contribute its benefits because it integrates into the nationwide improvement plan in accordance with the nation’s wants.”

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The metropolis ought to proceed to strengthen its place as a world monetary heart and international buying and selling and maritime hub because it integrates into China’s improvement, he added.

Lee, a former safety minister, took over the town’s high job from Carrie Lam on July 1. Lam left after 5 tumultuous years that noticed the town rocked by huge pro-democracy protests in 2019, a subsequent political crackdown that crushed dissent and the coronavirus outbreak that killed hundreds of individuals and hammered the town’s economic system.

In an election in May, Lee gained over 99 per cent of the vote from a committee stacked with largely pro-Beijing members because the race’s sole candidate. He is the town’s fifth chief govt after the previous British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

A day earlier than Lee left for Beijing, he stated he would convey Hong Kongers’ hopes to reopen the border with mainland China, which is seen as key to additional boosting the town’s economic system. Most checkpoints between Hong Kong and China have been closed throughout a lot of the pandemic. (AP)

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