Five-Year Plan: Hong Kong’s Beijing-aligned policy blueprint was drawn up locally, says Chief Exec. John Lee

Hong Kong’s first Five-Year Plan aligning with mainland China’s development goals was drawn up by the local administration with reference to those of Chinese cities, leader John Lee has said. He was addressing a question as to whether Beijing was involved in the drafting of the blueprint.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon after delivering his address, Lee thanked authorities from various mainland Chinese provinces and municipalities for sharing their experiences with the Hong Kong government.

In response to a question from Ming Pao, Lee said that the document was drawn up by the local administration: “Experience-sharing was involved in the formulation of the Five-Year Plan, but it’s for the Hong Kong… government to draw up the Five-Year Plan based on our experience and circumstances,” he said.

‘Local circumstances’

Earlier this week, the chief executive addressed concerns about whether the introduction of a half-decade policy blueprint, aligning with Beijing’s practice, signalled a shift in Hong Kong’s existing system. He said the policy blueprint would adhere to the city’s “capitalist system.”

At a press conference held a day before his major policy speech, he said that the blueprint does not seek to shift the city towards a “planned economy.”

Speaking on Wednesday, Lee said that it is “clearly set out in our Five-Year Plan that this blueprint is drawn up on the basis of Hong Kong’s local circumstances.”

“While we do take reference from the governments in the mainland, we need to have regard for local circumstances,” Lee said.

“One consideration is of course for the plan to dovetail with national development,” he said, adding that Hong Kong’s blueprint must align with plans for national development set forth in China’s five-year policy document.

Hong Kong must align with the central government’s plan to strengthen the city’s financial, maritime, and trade sectors as well as its status as an international aviation hub, he said.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse said that the local government read the plans of mainland cities as well as Macau’s. Macau published its third five-year blueprint this August.

“They helped us in understanding the directions set out in their plans, and that helped us in formulating our own plan,” said Tse, who came out of retirement to lead the bureau this March.

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James Lee is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in culture and social issues. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Journalism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he witnessed the institution’s transformation over the course of the 2019 extradition bill protests and after the passing of the Beijing-imposed security law.

Since joining HKFP in 2023, he has covered local politics, the city’s housing crisis, as well as landmark court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial. He was previously a reporter at The Standard where he interviewed pro-establishment heavyweights and extensively covered the Covid-19 pandemic and Hong Kong’s political overhauls under the national security law.