Chief Executive John Lee has compared Hong Kong’s economic outreach efforts to attracting women.

Amid strong competition, Lee said he was seeking economies that find Hong Kong mutually attractive, with Southeast Asian neighbours being a priority for bolstering trade ties.

“It’s like me chasing a girl – you have to ensure there’s some kind of attraction between us. So I think ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] is our second-largest partner after the mainland the mutual attraction is already there – strengthen it,” the city’s leader told SCMP on Sunday.

SCMP Managing Editor Yonden Lhatoo took the analogy further, suggesting that girls’ families may be focused on preventing such relationships, in an apparent reference to US trade turmoil.

“But there are a lot of girls,” Lee said, adding there are many options such as the Middle East. “We’ve already decided to not just singly focus on the US market.”

The dating analogy has been employed by senior officials repeatedly over the past year. Last June, Lee said that attracting large-scale events to the city was akin to “chasing good women.” This March, talent matching efforts were compared to dating by the labour chief. Weeks later, the justice chief said national security education was an ongoing process, comparable to how one treats their spouse beyond Valentine’s Day.

‘That is Hong Kong’

Lee said that there were no plans to enter a tit-for-tat trade war with the US following the imposition of tariffs by US President Donald Trump. Instead, the city would remain a free port, he said.

Hong Kong had to primarily focus on national development, but will also foster international connectivity through the One Country, Two Systems framework. “We continue to be bilingual – and, hopefully multilingual – we continue to maintain our way of life, we continue to maintain zero customs, our own law and also openness.”

“There is no control on capital, no control on people, no control on data – that is Hong Kong.”

It comes weeks after it emerged that multiple independent media outlets were facing simultaneous tax audits.

Hong Kong has been seeking to reboot its economy after registering annual deficits in three of the past four years. Its economic growth slowed to 2.5 percent last year.

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