Business tycoon Allan Zeman on Tuesday said stable business ties between the United Kingdom and China will not be affected by a recent court case where an official at the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s trade outpost in London was convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service.
The UK, like much of the rest of the world, puts a premium on close ties with China, a nation of stability and unprecedented business vitality, in today’s uncertain, turbulent global climate, Zeman told China Daily in an exclusive interview.
The remarks by the chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group came as a UK court found Bill Yuen Chung-biu, the manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and Peter Wai Chi-leung, a private security company owner, guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service.
ALSO READ: Allan Zeman: LegCo poll great opportunity to voice up
In response, the Hong Kong SAR government said the allegations are “absolutely unrelated” to either itself or its London trade office. China’s central authorities slammed the case as a political move devoid of factual basis.
Zeman said it will not impair business ties between the UK and the HKSAR, with official data showing that 770 companies operating in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region had parent firms domiciled in the UK in 2025.
Furthermore, Zeman said the case will not dampen the global business community’s favorable impressions of Hong Kong-linked investment and trade activities, nor undermine the rationale for the city’s overseas trade offices, which he considers key linchpins to business promotion and cross-border ties.
Hong Kong authorities currently run 15 such overseas trade offices spanning Asia Pacific, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.
“Hong Kong businesses have never been busier. I’ve been here almost 60 years, and honestly, things are great right now,” he said, citing the city’s 5.9 percent year-on-year economic growth, its fastest quarterly increase in nearly five years, and a 17 percent rise in investment over the same period.
READ MORE: Allan Zeman casts confidence on China amid tariff tensions
Zeman said the city’s vigor is primarily down to dawning global recognition that the Hong Kong SAR is the world’s “super-connector” to the wider Chinese nation, while the country itself has increasingly come to be seen — in an age of uncertainty — as a safe economic haven and a trading partner one can trust.
As a sign of this, he pointed to a parade of top-tier diplomatic trips to China by British, French, and German leaders since late last year.
Zeman also keeps a close watch on progress in formulating Hong Kong’s first-ever local five-year plan, an initiative he called “significant”.
He emphasized the Northern Metropolis — the city’s 300-square-kilometer township development on land bordering Guangdong province — as a key strategic growth anchor in the making, given its promise to become a pivotal node for the city’s deeper integration with the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and the wider Chinese mainland.
He also urged Hong Kong authorities to work more avidly to encourage the biomedical industry and low-altitude airspace development — aligning the city’s ambitions with the nation’s — and to double down on cementing the city’s hub role for global offshore renminbi businesses, a move he said has been given fresh impetus by the erosion of the US dollar’s global dominance amid intensifying geopolitical friction.
Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com