On July 21, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization was released. The resolution proposes strengthening the mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to play a better role in the country’s opening to the outside world.

Since the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC in 1978, Hong Kong — a highly international city with a different governance system from the Chinese mainland — has played a pivotal and indispensable role in the country’s opening to the outside world.

However, given the continued rise of the country, changes in its national development strategy, and changes in the international situation, especially the containment and suppression of China by the United States and the West, the country’s opening-up strategy needs to be constantly adjusted, and Hong Kong’s role in it must change accordingly. Unmistakably, this role has also become increasingly crucial.

The resolution marks a significant increase in the intensity, depth, and breadth of the country’s opening to the outside world. The reason is that, according to the resolution, the current and future periods are critical for comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization. Moreover, in the face of the complex and tumultuous international and domestic situation, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and the people’s new expectations, we must continue pushing the reform forward.

The resolution puts forward new expectations for Hong Kong’s functions in the country’s opening to the outside world. The overall purpose is to express the hope that the HKSAR can fully support the country’s new round of opening to the outside world and expand its effectiveness. On July 30, President Xi Jinping replied in a letter to a group of Hong Kong entrepreneurs whose ancestral home is Ningbo, stating that comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation with Chinese modernization requires all Chinese people to unite, join forces and work hard. “I hope you will continue to give full play to your respective advantages, actively and proactively integrate into the overall situation of the country’s reform and opening-up, contribute to Chinese modernization, and make new contributions to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he wrote. The key description here is that Hong Kong should make “new contributions” to the country.

The targets that President Xi has in mind are Hong Kong residents and the vast number of overseas Chinese.

To effectively realize in Hong Kong the spirit of President Xi’s reply letter, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Central Committee of the CPC, put forward some suggestions. He affirmed that “we must combine the study of the spirit of President Xi’s important reply with the study and implementation of the spirit of the third plenary session of the CPC Central Committee, integrate it with the overall situation of the country’s reform and opening-up, combine it with the reality of Hong Kong and Macao, give full play to the advantages of the ‘one country, two systems’, continuously consolidate and improve Hong Kong’s status as international financial, shipping and trade centers, create a hub for high-caliber international talent, improve the mechanism for Hong Kong and Macao to better play a role in the country’s opening-up, promote the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to better play its role as a power source for high-quality development and boost the development of new quality productive forces”.

President Xi’s reply and Director Xia’s interpretation of the letter attest to the central government’s eager expectations for Hong Kong’s role in the country’s new round of opening to the outside world.

First, to effectively respond to the US’ intention to contain China in the realms of trade, finance, and technology, the country urgently needs to open up new international economic space beyond the Western world, broaden China’s development hinterland, strengthen cooperation among Eurasian countries, and ultimately build a robust Eurasian economic community. In this regard, the Belt and Road Initiative and renminbi (RMB) internationalization are undoubtedly significant strategic moves for China to break through the containment and blockade of the US and some Western nations. The resolution therefore proposes to improve “the mechanisms for high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative”. As an international financial center, Hong Kong can become a regional financial hub for countries participating in the BRI by broadening and deepening its financial market, including providing financing, risk management, business consulting, wealth management, clearing and settlement, legal settlement, data management, information, intellectual property protection, and transactions, advertising and promotion, and other services.

The resolution undertakes to “promote high-standard opening-up of the financial sector, steadily and prudently advance the internationalization of the RMB, and develop offshore RMB markets”. In the process of accelerating the “internationalization of the RMB”, with the support of the central government, as currently the leading offshore RMB financial center, Hong Kong’s RMB capital pool is expected to continue to expand, allowing more RMB businesses such as bond issuance, loans, trade financing, investment and others to be conducted in Hong Kong. Foreign enterprises can also obtain more RMB from Hong Kong to conduct business.

Of equal importance, as the central government strives to attract foreign investment, foreign capital can enter China through the HKSAR via various channels, including purchasing mainland assets, investing in mainland enterprises, and establishing wholly-owned enterprises on the mainland. As an international trade center, the HKSAR promotes trade among countries along the Belt and Road, and between China and those countries in many aspects, such as conferences and exhibitions, transnational supply chain management, trade promotion, market information provision, market connectivity, and various trade services. As a global shipping center, Hong Kong has numerous air and sea routes, which can better connect countries participating in the BRI, promoting their geographical integration and regional economic development. Hong Kong is competitive in providing various software services related to shipping, such as financing, insurance, management, legal, and intelligent and digitalized shipping. An essential goal for Hong Kong’s future development should be to become a service hub for countries participating in the BRI.

Second, the resolution undertakes to “enable regions like the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the GBA to better play their roles as engines of high-quality development”. Through increasingly comprehensive and profound participation in the construction of the GBA, Hong Kong can help the area be more closely connected to the world, thereby facilitating the GBA and more mainland enterprises to “go aboard” or “become global”. As an essential platform to drive national reform, innovation, and opening-up, the economic strength and development potential of the GBA is no less than that of bay areas such as Tokyo, San Francisco, and New York. In the process of building the GBA, Hong Kong’s primary role is to promote connections among cities in the area, turn it into a highly integrated and internationalized regional economy, and strengthen its connections with the world by leveraging Hong Kong’s extensive global network. To meet the central government’s trust, cooperation among cities in the GBA must be improved as the resolution emphasizes. The key is strengthening the connection of rules and mechanisms among the cities.

Hong Kong is different from the rest of the cities in the GBA in terms of its legal system, political, economic, and social institutions, the role of the government in economic and social realms, professional standards, regulatory systems, product quality criteria, and many other aspects.

These institutional disparities have hindered the flow of capital, information, personnel, goods, and technology within the GBA. Consequently, there is still a long way to go before the area becomes a highly integrated regional economy. In the future, under the central government’s top-level design and overall coordination, Hong Kong and other cities in the area will adopt higher international standards to improve their respective systems, laws, rules, and mechanisms, thereby continuously reducing each other’s disparities in institutions and regulations, allowing them to connect more closely and effectively. In fostering this convergence process, we can learn from the European Union’s successful experiences. In any case, the general guiding principles should include seeking truth from facts, proceeding step by step, starting with the easier tasks before taking on the more complex, employing pilot programs to gather experiences, and focusing on projects with a broad impact.

The resolution emphasizes that “education, science and technology, and talent function as basic and strategic underpinnings for Chinese modernization”, demands “working faster to develop world-class universities and strong disciplines with Chinese features”, calls for “promoting high-standard opening-up in the education sector”, and encourages “first-rate foreign universities of science and engineering to develop partner schools and programs in China”. The resolution also underscores the need to deepen the reform of the talent development system and mechanisms, and “work faster to develop national hubs for high-caliber personnel and platforms for attracting and pooling talent”. Regarding the building up of talent, the central government’s expectations for Hong Kong are apparent. It is hoped that Hong Kong will strive to build itself into a hub for high-caliber international talent so that such talent can simultaneously serve Hong Kong, especially in promoting the development of new quality productive forces and contributing to the country’s development. To put it bluntly, the central government hopes that HKSAR can become a national talent pool and enable that talent to strengthen the connection between the country and the world.

Currently, due to xenophobia in the US and other Western countries and their policies on education, technology, and talent becoming more restrictive and unfair, many high-caliber professionals in the West are inclined to migrate to other places. Specifically, the increasingly manifest discrimination against Chinese scientists in the US and the West has triggered an outflow of Chinese talent. Hong Kong’s free, open, diverse, affluent, and cosmopolitan social and cultural environment is attractive to some talent. To attract talent from the US and the West and build Hong Kong into a hub for high-caliber talent, the HKSAR government and all sectors of society must work together to improve existing conditions and create new conditions so that talent can feel welcome, can receive appropriate support and care in all aspects, and can find valuable opportunities to serve both Hong Kong and the country. Hong Kong’s current talent-trawling policy has achieved good results, but it still needs to redouble efforts in retaining talent and attracting talent from developed countries. After all, building Hong Kong into a high-caliber talent hub is a complex systematic project requiring the HKSAR government to formulate comprehensive policies, invest resources, and forge close cooperation among various government departments. Cooperation is even more crucial in the division of labor between the government and all sectors of society, especially universities, scientific research institutions, and corporations in high-technology fields.

Whether it is to improve the mechanism for Hong Kong to better play a role in the country’s opening to the outside world or to enable the city to make new contributions to the country in other policy areas, Hong Kong needs to meet the expectations of the central government through unremitting innovation and reform and strengthening its unique role and utility in the national development process.

It goes without saying that although the resolution contains minimal discussion about Hong Kong, it does not mean that the many policies and deployments of the central government covered by the resolution have nothing to do with the city.

In fact, Hong Kong has valuable roles to play in building a national unified market, enhancing the country’s cultural soft power and the influence of Chinese culture, promoting entrepreneurship, encouraging the formation of a new intelligent and efficient governance system for megacities, comprehensively supporting the rule of law in all aspects of the country’s work, and guiding and regulating the development of private hospitals. These roles can allow Hong Kong to enhance further its contribution to the country’s opening to the outside world.

The author is a professor emeritus of sociology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a consultant for the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.