Roy Chu says trip confirmed that a harmonious and collaborative relationship between the central authorities and the SAR is key to the city’s future success

In July, I participated in a seven-day study tour in Beijing with fellow members of the Legislative Council. The study tour — structured around the rule of law, technological innovation, cultural heritage, and urban governance — sharpened my understanding of how the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region can effectively discharge its unique role under the “one country, two systems” principle and weave itself more deeply into the national development tapestry. Out of this immersive experience, my takeaways can be framed as: The rule of law as our backbone, technology as our wings, cultural heritage as our soul, and strategic positioning as our anchor.

The study program reinforced my absolute conviction in the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong” as the core institutional safeguard for the stable and long-term implementation of “one country, two systems”. Through seminars and site visits, it became unequivocal that a harmonious, collaborative, and deeply trusting relationship between the central authorities and the SAR is the prerequisite for the city’s future success. As legislators, we bear a constitutional responsibility to proactively align the SAR’s distinctive strengths with the nation’s developmental imperatives. When discharging our duties, safeguarding national security and promoting Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability should always be at the top of our agenda. This positions us to seamlessly dovetail with the strategic direction set out in the national 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) and the broader development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The rule of law is, and must remain, the backbone of Hong Kong’s governance. The SAR’s common law tradition and mature legal system are sources of pride, yet our visit to a grassroots legislative outreach office in Beijing offered a salutary glimpse of what deeper public engagement in lawmaking can actually look like. There, we witnessed a vivid expression of whole-process people’s democracy, where every day citizens’ diverse views are channeled through transparent procedures directly into formal legal texts. For Hong Kong, the challenge is not to directly replicate this model but to reinforce its own institutional enforcement and normative clarity, particularly in livelihood-related areas such as housing, social welfare, and eldercare. We must strive to elevate the rule-of-law index of our governance, ensuring that administrative procedures are fair and palpably deliver real, tangible benefits — bolstering public trust and deepening the community’s genuine sense of security and fulfillment.

If the rule of law grounds us, technology is the pair of wings that propels us forward. Hong Kong has placed a premium on innovation and technology, but our research and development efforts have historically gravitated toward areas of established strength, most notably financial technology. The sheer momentum of new industrialization witnessed in Beijing — from the Xiaomi automobile factory to the robotics center — underscores the necessity of broadening our horizons. As one of the world’s most rapidly aging societies, Hong Kong faces a demographic reality that demands a bold recalibration of our I&T priorities. We must substantially ramp up investment in gerontechnology, rehabilitation aids, and smart community solutions. The Northern Metropolis and the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Hetao area provide ready platforms to foster such a differentiated, demand-led technological portfolio. By doing so, we can transform a pressing social challenge into a sharp competitive edge, serving both local well-being and the nation’s innovation-driven development.

The soul of any great city — and indeed of any enduring polity — resides in its cultural and historical continuity. Similarly, Hong Kong’s distinct soul must be preserved even as the city rapidly modernizes. The regeneration of Beijing’s Longfusi historical and cultural quarter offered an inspiring model of how this can be done: Historic spatial morphology was respected, fresh commercial and cultural formats were introduced, and buildings were sustainably revitalized through creative use rather than frozen as untouchable museum exhibits. Hong Kong, with its own rich but increasingly imperiled urban heritage, must embrace similar adaptive and pragmatic revitalization strategies. Equally instructive was Beijing’s “12345” citizen service hotline and its “immediate response” mechanism — a digitalized closed-loop system centered on quality feedback that breathes life into a people-centered philosophy. While Hong Kong boasts a tradition of community service, its capacity for cross-departmental coordination and digital responsiveness can, and must, rise to meet higher standards. Accelerating the development of a digital government and streamlining public workflows will allow residents to experience the very real dividends of good governance firsthand.

Underpinning all these endeavors is the imperative of strategic positioning. The 15th Five-Year Plan couples the pursuit of high-quality development with an unwavering emphasis on security, setting a definitive and enabling compass for the SAR. Hong Kong is no ordinary metropolis; its constitutional status as a common law jurisdiction endows the city with natural, peerless advantages in foreign-related legal services and international dispute resolution. The SAR’s character as a deeply connected global city renders it an irreplaceable magnet for attracting global talent and capital. The task ahead of Hong Kong is to pursue confident differentiation within national integration — leveraging the advantages of the “one country, two systems” principle to consolidate its standing as a global financial, shipping, and trade center while aligning with national strategies and deepening multilevel cooperation with other cities in the Chinese mainland. High-profile initiatives like the Northern Metropolis, the new university town, and cross-boundary eldercare are far from isolated projects; they are living testaments to a city learning to harness its uniqueness for the common good.

This weeklong journey in the capital has deeply enriched my political vision and fortified my sense of legislative duty. It also reminded me of my core purpose as a Legislative Council member: to champion policies that strengthen our rule-of-law foundations, diversify our innovation landscape, safeguard our cultural soul, and secure our strategic place in the nation's unfolding story. In doing so, we can ensure that Hong Kong not only continues to thrive on the global stage, but also contributes meaningfully and proudly to the great endeavor of our motherland.

The author is a Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress, a member of the Legislative Council, and a member of the Southern District Council.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.