Zhang arrived in Hong Kong on 17 May 2016 for a three-day visit in his capacity as the official responsible for Hong Kong and Macau affairs to unprecedentedly level of security. Parts of the city were in lockdown by the 8,000 police officers who were eventually deployed. Zhang was protected by heavily armed police officers and a 45-car cortège. Despite the high level of alert, pro-democracy activists managed to put up massive banners in prominent locations to welcome Zhang – whilst some banners recalled the Umbrella revolution slogan "I want genuine universal suffrage", another, which read: “End Chinese Communist Party dictatorship”, was hung up and visible to Zhang's motorcade from the airport. Zhang spoke at a policy conference on General Secretary Xi Jinping's One Belt, One Road economic project.