Chinese President Xi Jinping has offered personal assurances that he won't use the protests in Hong Kong as an excuse to tighten Beijing's controls on the region, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said.
Speaking in a Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, Lam pushed back against the widespread assumption that Xi is tightening controls on Hong Kong as she sought to reassure global investors that the financial center will remain stable despite months of historic and increasingly violent protests.
"There is no truth in the allegation that the central government is tightening the grip on Hong Kong," Lam said. "The central government has time and again made it very clear that they want Hong Kong to succeed under 'one country, two systems' and a high degree of autonomy. It was made very clear to me by President Xi Jinping on the three occasions that I met him" in recent months.