Li dismisses worries over HK policy tightening

Beijing

CHINA'S Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday dismissed worries that Beijing would tighten controls over Hong Kong, saying that the country's leaders would not "easily" change the policy toward the former British colony.

Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that gives it a separate legal system and greater freedoms than the Communist Party-ruled mainland - and the promise of universal suffrage.