A 70-strong group of Hong Kong financial professionals published an open letter to central authorities in newspaper on Wednesday seeking a high degree of autonomy in the region, a move that experts viewed as a misunderstanding of the current political principle of Hong Kong.

The group placed the letter in Wednesday's editions of the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily in Chinese and the Financial Times International daily in English.

The letter claimed that since Hong Kong's reversion to the motherland in 1997, policies have increasingly fallen short of applying the principle of "one country, two systems," and the current political climate in Hong Kong is having a negative impact on Hong Kong's competitiveness as a major financial centre in Asia.

The letter listed 10 requests of central authorities, including establishing a system of universal suffrage, preventing monopoly by persons or organizations of special privilege, and safeguarding Hong Kong's reputation for maintaining strong anti-corruption in government and business.

"In the past, the central government emphasized more on 'the two systems' and it's not until recently that it starts to stress the 'one country' as cases of Hong Kong people challenging the central government surfaced in recent years," Zhu Shihai, a professor specializing in Hong Kong studies at the Central Institute of Socialism, told the Global Times.

Zhu noted that most Hong Kong people worry about Hong Kong being tainted by negative habits on the Chinese mainland, such as using connections to make deals instead of core competitiveness, and fear that the invasion of these factors will even destroy the financial system of the region.

Edward Chin, an organizer of Wednesday's letter, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the other participants include former and current members of the Hong Kong finance supervision organizations, members of the stock exchange, shareholders and investment bankers.

Chin said that they want to urge the Communist Party to look at their requests and give Hong Kong autonomy, instead of inserting "too much influence."

He said that there is not enough fair play in Hong Kong any more.

But Chin stressed they still love China and do not want to challenge the leadership.

Zhu said that the majority of Hong Kong people want to be immune to the negative influence from the mainland, but the majority recognizes central authorities exercising their regulatory rights in the region, which lives up to "one country, two systems" and is stipulated in the basic law.

However, the central government should also better balance its relation with the region as Hong Kong residents continue to organize such actions, Zhu told the Global Times.