ABSTRACT
When attending the celebration ceremony for the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in September 2010, Hong Kong’s richest tycoon, Li Ka-shing, was given a high-profile reception by Chinese President Hu Jintao and the two persons shook hands in front of television cameras. During their one-to-one meeting, Hu Jintao highly praised Li Ka-shing as an outstanding entrepreneur who had made enormous contributions to the country’s economic reform and the preservation of Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity (South China Morning Post, 2010a, 7 September). The highprofile meeting was widely regarded by the local media as another illustration of the high level of cordiality and friendship between the Beijing leaders and the Hong Kong business sector (South China Morning Post, 2010b, 7 September). This kind of high-profile private meeting is, however, not an isolated incident, because since the handover the local capitalists have been warmly received by Chinese leaders regularly either in Beijing or during their visits to Hong Kong, and those big names include former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, former Vice-President Zeng Qinghong and the incumbent President Xi Jinping. The dynamics of state-business relations in Hong Kong have undergone fundamental changes since 1997 and without doubt the closer partnership between the business sector and the new sovereign state (Chinese government) is one of the significant contributing factors for this change. Unlike the colonial period, when the relationship between the business sector and the London government was relatively distant, the business sector nowadays enjoys direct access to the Chinese authorities. There are several structural factors that contributed to the development of a closer partnership between the business sector and the Chinese government, including the extensive incorporation of business elites into the Hong Kong delegations to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the united-front work of the Central Liaison Office and also the business sector’s increased economic links with the Mainland authorities. By establishing direct access to the sovereign state, the business sector has established another important power leverage vis-à-vis the post-colonial Hong Kong state after 1997, and this has brought about unprecedented challenges to the smooth functioning of the state-business alliance.
