HONG KONG: One of China’s most powerful officials told Hong Kong he had brought a “caring heart”, in a conciliatory start to a visit Tuesday that has stirred anger in a city that resents Beijing’s tightening grip.

The three-day trip by Zhang Dejiang, who chairs China’s communist-controlled legislature, is the first by such a senior official in four years and comes as concerns grow in semi-autonomous Hong Kong that its long-cherished freedoms are under threat.

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