Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying left for Beijing on Wednesday evening to attend the funeral of the late vice-premier and foreign minister Qian Qichen (1928-2017), who served as chairman of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Preparatory Committee from January 1996 through to the handover on July 1, 1997. To say Qian played an important role in ensuring Hong Kong's smooth return to the motherland is an understatement, as he was not only thoroughly involved in the talks and negotiations between China and the United Kingdom regarding the question of Hong Kong and practically all the preparations for the handover, but also a key witness to the historical event from a State leader's vantage point.

When Qian retired in 2003, at the age of 75, he had some very wise advice for Hong Kong, including that it should spare no effort on maintaining stability in the best interest of society as a whole. Indeed, many older local residents remember what an outstanding job the central government did in ensuring Hong Kong's safe and smooth return to the motherland back in the day, despite various attempts by unfriendly and downright hostile forces to create confusion and fear among Hong Kong residents in those uncertain days. And Qian was in charge of preparations for the final steps up to the handover while the whole world was watching closely. It is safe to say Hong Kong could not thank him enough for a job so well done.

Many people may agree that 2003 was a very difficult year for Hong Kong in many ways, beginning with the SARS epidemic in spring that put Hong Kong people's strengths as a community to the most serious test in memory. The deadly scourge also dealt a heavy blow to local economy as the number of visitors hit record lows for months on end. It should be noted that the central authorities and mainland compatriots were also caught by surprise, as the rest of the world was, when the SARS virus struck but they did their very best to help Hong Kong any way they could, even after citywide quarantine was lifted and life slowly but surely returned to normal.

In the years that followed Hong Kong has experienced yet more tough challenges, especially the global financial crisis of 2008 and political chaos in more recent years - which came as the economy was struggling to recover from the worldwide recession caused by the financial crisis. Hong Kong as a community of 7 million has prevailed because we know what is best for us and have the nation of 1.3 billion as well as the central government for support whenever we need it. There has been no shortage of attempts over the years to destabilize Hong Kong but all failed. That's proof Qian was absolutely right.

(HK Edition 05/18/2017 page8)