Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs has called on the alumni of the prestigious Tsinghua University to help the city better serve national development with their patriotism, pragmatism and global networks.

Adding to the remarks by the director of the central government’s liaison office on Sunday, city leader John Lee Ka-chiu also expressed hope that more of the university’s graduates would assist the city in becoming an international education hub and promoting high-quality national development.

Liaison office chief Zhou Ji said the alumni had “led the way” in practising the “one country, two systems” governing principle as it had aided collaboration between the city and the university, as well as Hong Kong and mainland China, for decades.

He laid out three expectations for them: upholding Tsinghua’s tradition of patriotic contributions, promoting the spirit of pragmatism and leveraging their global networks.

“Over the years, Tsinghua alumni have flourished and spread across the globe, making outstanding achievements in many fields such as scientific and technological innovation. This rich pool of alumni resources is itself ‘rich ore’,” he told the Tsinghua Alumni Association of Hong Kong’s 70th Anniversary Summit.

“With the strong support of the central government, Chief Executive John Lee has led the government and all sectors of society to accelerate the construction of an international innovation centre and a talent hub – all of this provides a broad stage for everyone to leverage alumni resource advantages to contribute to Hong Kong and serve the country.”

Zhou also asked the alumni to promote the spirit of pragmatism – a core value of Tsinghua – and support Hong Kong’s law-based governance as the city aligned itself with the national development plan, the evolution of the Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative.