‘I’ll be first in line to buy your bonds’: how Zhu Rongji put steel in Hong Kong’s spine

Tributes pour in for former premier Zhu Rongji from senior leaders in Hong Kong’s political and business circles

In late 2002, former 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!”

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.”