In late 2002, then Chinese premier Zhu Rongji visited Hong Kong and sought to put steel in the spine of the city’s establishment that was floundering under an economic slump and a ballooning deficit.
“Even if you spend all your fiscal reserves three years from now, what is there to fear?” he asked his dinner guests at Government House in a famously unscripted speech.
“If you issue 50-year long-term Hong Kong bonds on the mainland, I will be the first in line to buy them. I believe the mainland people will follow me and buy them too!”
As tributes from Hong Kong’s business and political figures, including by former chief executives Leung Chun-ying and Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, poured in during the evening for Zhu, who died earlier on Wednesday, that dinner stood out for many as being among their cherished memories of the late leader.
His show of unreserved confidence lifted their spirits, Tsang said of the former premier who died at age 97.
“Visiting Hong Kong in person, he galvanised our confidence in combating fiscal deficits, high unemployment, and widespread negative equity, that prevailed at that time,” he recalled.
“His candid and inspiring words continue to resonate in the hearts of many people in Hong Kong.”