City Beat

Hong Kong cannot afford to say ‘I don’t mind’ to being overtaken by Shenzhen, President Xi’s ‘miracle’ city

Carrie Lam’s indifference, even if diplomatic, to Shenzhen surpassing Hong Kong economically goes down badly in proud city

Hong Kong failed to capitalise on competitive edge offered by ‘one country, two systems’, and may have to claw its way back with blood, sweat and tears

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Shenzhen, a poor fishing village just decades ago, has now left Hong Kong in its wake economically. Photo: Xinhua

Tammy Tam is the Publisher of the South China Morning Post, overseeing both editorial and business strategy and operations to drive the publication’s development and commercial growth.

Published: 4:46pm, 18 Oct 2020Updated: 5:05pm, 18 Oct 2020

“We should build several Hong Kongs on the mainland,” the late Deng Xiaoping once said.

That was when China’s paramount leader and architect of the country’s opening up visited Shenzhen, then a backward fishing village in the early 1980s, and looked across the border at a prosperous Hong Kong under British rule.

Shenzhen and three other cities had been designated as China’s first batch of special economic zones by then, but few, including Deng himself, knew how to go about it.

Deng’s message to Shenzhen was that he had no money to offer, only special policies which the city would have to make the most of and forge its own path with blood, sweat and tears.

The rest is history.