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China Briefing
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Wang Xiangwei
Wang Xiangwei

China Briefing | Carrie Lam’s non-speech said it all: Hong Kong and Shenzhen have swapped roles

  • Shenzhen once relied on Hong Kong’s investors and businesses for its rise from low-end manufacturing to hi-tech powerhouse
  • Now Hong Kong’s fortunes rest on Shenzhen

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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech in Shenzhen is shown on a public screen in Hong Kong. Photo: Bloomberg
Wang Xiangwei
The date of October 14 may have been penciled in the official calendar for some time as a significant date for officials both in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. On that day in Shenzhen, President Xi Jinping was expected to give a major policy speech on marking the 40th anniversary of the city as China’s first special economic zone and in Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was slated to give her annual policy address, laying out her vision and policies for the politically troubled city.
The manner in which Lam abruptly announced her decision to postpone her most important speech of the year on Monday – two days before she went up to Shenzhen – was more than an embarrassing acknowledgement of a clash of schedules. It offered another example of the changing dynamics between the two cities.

In 1980, China’s late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping chose Shenzhen, then a small fishing village, as a special economic zone, mainly because of its proximity to Hong Kong, then one of the thriving Four Little Dragons of Asia. Indeed, Hong Kong’s investors and businesses were crucial to Shenzhen’s rise as a low-end manufacturing hub in the 1980s and 1990s. Since then, however, Shenzhen has innovated and upgraded its industries to become one of China’s economic powerhouses known for its tech, finance and trade sectors. In 2018, the size of its economy overtook Hong Kong’s for the first time.

As a sign of Hong Kong’s declining role, Xi did not acknowledge Hong Kong’s contribution in his speech on Wednesday when he hailed Shenzhen’s spectacular growth of the past 40 years as “a miracle in world development history”.

Instead, he urged Shenzhen to become the key engine to power the building of the Greater Bay Area, his master plan to merge 11 cities including Hong Kong and Macau into a megalopolis to rival the San Francisco Bay Area, New York and Tokyo.

Talk about changing fortunes.

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