Transcript of remarks by CE at media session in Beijing (with photos/videos)

     Following is the transcript of the media session in Beijing this afternoon (November 6) by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, together with the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Frank Chan Fan; the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan; the Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr Alfred Sit; the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Erick Tsang Kwok-wai; the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui; and the Director of the Chief Executive's Office, Mr Chan Kwok-ki:

Reporter: I want to ask about the US elections. In the Trump administration, it ended the special trade status with Hong Kong. Do you think it's going to change in the next four years and what is your expectation for the next administration, the US administration?

Chief Executive: The United States has a very strong and solid relationship with Hong Kong over the years. We have a large number of US companies in Hong Kong. We have over 80 000 American citizens living and working in Hong Kong. That's why we would love to have that sort of very solid and mutually respected relationship continuing irrespective of which administration. I don't want to get myself involved into American politics, so to whatever administration in the United States of the day, I would like to make this appeal that every country, every government should respect the jurisdiction of another country and another territory. For the past year or so, the American administration and officials have been repeatedly interfering with the internal affairs of the People's Republic of China and the internal affairs of Hong Kong. That is totally unreasonable and could not be justified in an international relationship. Worse still, they have chosen to unilaterally suspend some bilateral agreements. They have unreasonably imposed sanctions on government officials including myself. I hope that they will come back to normalcy and accept that the relationship has to be built on mutual respect and co-operation. Thank you.

Reporter: You've had many meetings with senior leadership here in Beijing in the last few days. Have they accepted your proposals and can you tell us a bit more about what is happening and why this was even necessary for you to come up here?
 
Chief Executive: You will appreciate that since I took office as the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, I have been calling on various ministries and commissions in the Central Government in order to get more support for Hong Kong, in various aspects of our economy. Because of the pandemic, these visits and meetings have been suspended for a while, but meanwhile our work in order to get Hong Kong out of the current economic doldrums has been continuing. I decided to put forward a series of measures that I would love to have more Central Government's support, maybe a couple of months ago. I received a very positive feedback and offered to arrange meetings directly between myself and the senior officials in the respective ministries and commissions. That's the purpose of the trip. It doesn't reflect whether they are feeling that we have been doing well or not, because this is an ongoing process. I am sure you will appreciate that economic progress is an ongoing evolutionary process. There's always this urge to do better in our economic development. But, I am sorry I could not give you more details about what have been discussed and what have been achieved in those meetings.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)