{
  "id": 674810,
  "title": "‘I’ll be first in line to buy your bonds’: how Zhu Rongji put steel in Hong Kong’s spine",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/12/ill-be-first-in-line-to-buy-your-bonds-how-zhu-rongji-put-steel-in-674810",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-12T14:10:52.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "South China Morning Post - Hong Kong",
    "slug": "south-china-morning-post-hong-kong",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3363819/ill-be-first-line-buy-your-bonds-how-zhu-rongji-put-steel-hong-kongs-spine"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "In late 2002, then Chinese premier Zhu Rongji visited Hong Kong and sought to put steel in the spine of the city’s establishment that was floundering under an economic slump and a ballooning deficit. “Even if you spend all your fiscal reserves three years from now, what is there to fear?” he asked his dinner guests at Government House in a famously unscripted speech. “If you issue 50-year…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}