President Xi Jinping underscored the importance of and Beijing's adherence to the "one country, two systems" policy as he inaugurated the new government of the Macao Special Administrative Region on Saturday.

"No matter what difficulties or challenges we may encounter, they could never shake our confidence and resolve to uphold the principle and advance the practice of ‘one country, two systems'," Xi said at a celebration of the 15th anniversary of Macao's return to the Chinese motherland and inauguration of the fourth-term government of the Macao SAR.

"We must both adhere to the one-China principles and respect the differences of the two systems, both uphold the power of the central government and ensure a high decree of autonomy in the special administrative regions, both give play to the role of the Chinese mainland as the staunch supporter of Hong Kong and Macao and increase their competitiveness," he said.

Xi said that “this is the only way” to sound and steady progress and that other approaches are misguided.

Xi's two-day visit to Macao, starting from Friday, came days after Hong Kong cleared the final site of the "Occupy Central" protest which illegally started months ago as a misreading of the "one country, two systems" policy.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in October that "foreign forces" were at work in the protest that once paralyzed parts of the city.

During a meeting with Leung on Friday, Xi said the central government has full trust in him.

"The central government will, as always, support you and the SAR government in your work," he told Leung in Macao.

Speaking of Macao on Saturday, Xi said that the government needs to maintain vigilance against foreign interference.

"We need to guard against and oppose external infiltration and interference, so as to maintain the sound atmosphere of stability and unity in Macao," Xi said.

zhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com.cn zhanghaizhou@chinadaily.com.cn