We all know how busy Chinese president Xi Jinping can be, so when he calls for a meeting, it must be top priority. For the richest Hong Kong tycoons, it is unusual to meet Xi in a group meeting, particularly to discuss politics rather than business.
Last week, Xi greeted a delegation of senior figures from Hong Kong's business sector, including Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing, whose relations with Beijing were believed to be at a turning point after his business empire apparently tried to offload assets in the world's No 2 economy and shift more focus to Europe.
Such a high-profile group meeting led by former and first chief executive Tung Chee-hwa received a lot of media and public attention at a time when frustrations have grown following Beijing's controversial decision to screen and limit candidates for the 2017 chief executive election.
Whoever initiated the meeting must believe Xi's appearance and involvement could help ease the situation by reassuring Hong Kong people that Beijing' policy remained unchanged with respect to the "One country, two systems" developed by China's late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. Unfortunately, this meeting may be just another misstep by top officials in charge of Hong Kong affairs in Beijing.
Hong Kong has been a business and market-oriented society for many decades. The influence of business leaders like Li Ka-shing is huge.
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