China's Vice Premier He Lifeng says at the Hong Kong summit that economic momentum is shifting to new drivers and building Hong Kong well remains key strategy

• Views Hong Kong's five-year plan with utmost confidence and will continue to offer full support for Hong Kong
• Will build free and open economic environment in Hong Kong.

Remarks of this kind from a vice premier at a Hong Kong financial gathering follow a well-worn script: senior Beijing officials periodically use such venues to reaffirm central support for the territory's role as an offshore financing hub, and the language of full backing, openness, and confidence in the five-year plan is continuity signalling rather than new policy. The significance historically lies less in the wording than in the speaker: He Lifeng occupies the top economic coordination role and serves as the principal counterpart in economic dialogues with foreign counterparts, so his personal appearance carries more weight than a lower-level reaffirmation would. The phrase about momentum shifting to new drivers is the standard framing for the industrial-policy pivot toward technology and advanced manufacturing and away from property-led growth, a theme repeated across official communications. Episodes of this kind have tended to be followed by incremental connect-scheme expansions, offshore yuan measures, or listings-pipeline support rather than headline stimulus, and the tell is whether concrete measures appear in the days after the summit. Absent any new announcement, precedent suggests the read-through for HKEX-exposed names and offshore CNH is sentiment-level and short-lived.