Beijing behind security lockdown for Li's trip, Legco president says
South China Morning Post - AUGEST 29, 2011
By Peter So
Legco president Tsang Yok-sing said he believed the Hong Kong government and police were under pressure from mainland officials to keep the city in "complete quiet and total security" during Vice-Premier Li Keqiang's visit earlier this month.
Speaking on ATV's current affairs programme Newsline, broadcast last night, Tsang said it was obvious that mainland officials, who were responsible for arranging the visit, would expect their Hong Kong counterparts to keep protesters away from the vice-premier.
The police's heavy-handed security surrounding Li's visit has been much criticised, especially the handling of student protesters on the University of Hong Kong campus.
"I believe the police would have been under pressure to ensure the VIP did not see or hear anything he did not want to see or hear," Tsang said. "Whenever an important official from Beijing visits Hong Kong, those [mainland officials] in charge of the arrangements always require complete peace and total security."
Tsang said this reflected on a value gap between Hong Kong people and the central government.
He said it was unfortunate that the officials did not want state leaders to have a chance to see "another side of Hong Kong" - referring to the protests held during Li's visit.
However, Tsang refused to comment on whether the police went overboard during the visit, because the Legco security panel would meet today to discuss the matter.
But writing on his blog yesterday, Home Affairs Bureau chief Tsang Tak-sing, the Legco president's younger brother, said Hongkongers should focus discussions on what benefits would come from the economic measures Li offered, rather than being distracted by other issues.
Li announced more than 30 economic and financial measures to enhance links between Hong Kong and the mainland during his three-day visit. "[The measures] will improve livelihoods substantially and facilitate continuous social improvement; this is the big issue related to the people's well-being," Tsang wrote.
"Some issues are more important and some are less important. It would show the wisdom of the public if they could distinguish the importance and priority of those issues. We should not be distracted."
Emily Lau Wai-hing, vice-chairwoman of the Democratic Party, said Tsang's views reflected how out of touch the home affairs chief was with what Hongkongers were most concerned about.
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Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Police may face legal test over Li Keqiang visit
Police may face legal test over Li Keqiang visit
South China Morning Post - AUGEST 26, 2011
By Tanna Chong
Police could face legal challenges over security arrangements for Vice-Premier Li Keqiang's visit that amounted to "serious interference with human rights", says a legislator and former Bar Association chairman.
A day after the association issued a strongly-worded statement challenging the legal basis for the designation of core security zones from which the public were barred, Alan Leong Kah-kit said such arbitrary decisions could breach the Basic Law and were open to judicial review.
"The designation of such a zone causes serious interference with human rights which are perpetuated in the Basic Law, so it needs strong justification," said Leong, a senior counsel and leader of the Civic Party.
He was referring to the mini-constitution's article 27, which upholds freedom of speech and demonstration; and article 28, which protects freedom of the person.
During Li's visit last week, a man wearing a June 4 protest T-shirt at Laguna City was taken away by the police as the vice-premier was visiting the Lam Tin residential estate.
Later, three protesting students were locked up in the back stairs of the University of Hong Kong's K.K. Leung building when they tried to reach Loke Yew Hall, where Li was attending HKU's centenary celebration. Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung said the man and the students had stepped into the "core security area".
Echoing the Bar Association's stance, Leong said no relevant legislation could be found justifying such zones, so Laguna City and part of the university campus could not have been so designated.
Both cited the farmers' protests at the World Trade Organisation's conference in Hong Kong in 2005, saying the area where activities were heavily restricted needed to be gazetted or ordered by the chief executive.
"But the two places could not be such zones, as other activities were ongoing [there] ... and Laguna City is a residential property," Leong said.
He expected Tsang to be grilled on the issue at a special meeting of the Legislative Council security panel on Monday. Students who were detained are also considering taking the police to court in a civil case or a judicial review.
The Bar Association also demanded a public explanation from the police of the legal authority for the security arrangements.
Law Society President Junius Ho Kwan-yiu was on the side of the police, however, saying there was a legal basis for such "core zones".
Citing section six of the Public Order Ordinance, Ho said the police chief had the discretion to decide on the extent of restrictions he considered necessary for national security or public safety. "The police would be unable to do anything if they had to gazette every single time before they took an action," Ho said.
The chief of the independent police watchdog said such zones should not be set up without notifying the public. "Police could put up a visible cordon line if it has to ban activities in certain zones due to security reasons," Jat Sew-tong, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Council, said.
The IPCC has received eight complaints about policing during Li's visit, many involving the public interest which needed serious handling, Jat said. They include one from a television station. The council will discuss the complaints with police at a regular meeting on Thursday.
Police would not disclose the number of officers deployed during each of the events that Li attended, but said 2,000 to 3,000 officers were involved on each of the three days.
University of Hong Kong vice-chancellor Professor Tsui Lap-chee - who has offered multiple apologies about security on the campus - will discuss the issue with students in an open forum tonight.
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South China Morning Post - AUGEST 26, 2011
By Tanna Chong
Police could face legal challenges over security arrangements for Vice-Premier Li Keqiang's visit that amounted to "serious interference with human rights", says a legislator and former Bar Association chairman.
A day after the association issued a strongly-worded statement challenging the legal basis for the designation of core security zones from which the public were barred, Alan Leong Kah-kit said such arbitrary decisions could breach the Basic Law and were open to judicial review.
"The designation of such a zone causes serious interference with human rights which are perpetuated in the Basic Law, so it needs strong justification," said Leong, a senior counsel and leader of the Civic Party.
He was referring to the mini-constitution's article 27, which upholds freedom of speech and demonstration; and article 28, which protects freedom of the person.
During Li's visit last week, a man wearing a June 4 protest T-shirt at Laguna City was taken away by the police as the vice-premier was visiting the Lam Tin residential estate.
Later, three protesting students were locked up in the back stairs of the University of Hong Kong's K.K. Leung building when they tried to reach Loke Yew Hall, where Li was attending HKU's centenary celebration. Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung said the man and the students had stepped into the "core security area".
Echoing the Bar Association's stance, Leong said no relevant legislation could be found justifying such zones, so Laguna City and part of the university campus could not have been so designated.
Both cited the farmers' protests at the World Trade Organisation's conference in Hong Kong in 2005, saying the area where activities were heavily restricted needed to be gazetted or ordered by the chief executive.
"But the two places could not be such zones, as other activities were ongoing [there] ... and Laguna City is a residential property," Leong said.
He expected Tsang to be grilled on the issue at a special meeting of the Legislative Council security panel on Monday. Students who were detained are also considering taking the police to court in a civil case or a judicial review.
The Bar Association also demanded a public explanation from the police of the legal authority for the security arrangements.
Law Society President Junius Ho Kwan-yiu was on the side of the police, however, saying there was a legal basis for such "core zones".
Citing section six of the Public Order Ordinance, Ho said the police chief had the discretion to decide on the extent of restrictions he considered necessary for national security or public safety. "The police would be unable to do anything if they had to gazette every single time before they took an action," Ho said.
The chief of the independent police watchdog said such zones should not be set up without notifying the public. "Police could put up a visible cordon line if it has to ban activities in certain zones due to security reasons," Jat Sew-tong, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Council, said.
The IPCC has received eight complaints about policing during Li's visit, many involving the public interest which needed serious handling, Jat said. They include one from a television station. The council will discuss the complaints with police at a regular meeting on Thursday.
Police would not disclose the number of officers deployed during each of the events that Li attended, but said 2,000 to 3,000 officers were involved on each of the three days.
University of Hong Kong vice-chancellor Professor Tsui Lap-chee - who has offered multiple apologies about security on the campus - will discuss the issue with students in an open forum tonight.
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Thursday, 25 August 2011
Taking Beijing to Hong Kong
Taking Beijing to Hong Kong
Li Keqiang brings mainland political culture to the city.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - AUGUST 23, 2011
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Hong Kong last week was a success in some respects. He came bearing benefits from the central government such as measures to promote offshore use of the yuan, which should bolster the city's position as a financial center. However, Mr. Li failed to establish the same kind of rapport with ordinary Hong Kong people achieved by Premier Wen Jiabao, the man he is set to replace in next year's leadership transition.
Much of the blame must go to his security detail and the Hong Kong police. On his first day in the territory last Tuesday, Mr. Li visited a housing estate to express his sympathy with residents over inflation and high property prices. But the good will dissipated when one resident made the mistake of coming out of his apartment wearing a T-shirt commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Wong King was promptly bundled away by men in dark suits, who told his daughter that wearing such a shirt was "rude." To add insult to injury, the police later justified his detention by accusing him of not paying an old jay-walking fine.
The following day officials turned away legislator Leung Kwok-heung from a dinner with local politicians because he was not wearing a tie. Putting on a jacket was already a big step for Mr. Leung, who usually wears a Che Guevera T-shirt and is known as a rabble-rouser. He protested that his invitation specified "business attire" and that he attended previous banquets with national leaders in similar outfits.
On Thursday, Mr. Li gave a speech at Hong Kong University and won kudos for making a few remarks in English. But the police marred the occasion by scuffling with student protesters, pushing some of them to the ground and keeping all of them outside the hall for the duration of the event. Vice Chancellor Tsui Lap-chee later apologized for the treatment of his students.
Journalists are also upset that throughout the three-day visit security arrangements were designed to prevent them from doing their jobs properly. In at least one case, they were not even allowed into the room where Mr. Li was speaking at a public event. The Hong Kong Journalists Association marched on police headquarters this weekend to express their anger.
These incidents taken together suggest that the police were acting not to protect Mr. Li from bodily harm, but to shield him from the embarrassment of being photographed with a protester. Perhaps it is a reflection of Beijing's paranoia after the Arab Spring, but Mr. Li brought the mainland's intolerance of free expression with him to a city that claims to have the rule of law and civil liberties. Mr. Wong, the T-shirt wearer, put it best when he asked, "Are they just coming to Hong Kong to see people clapping their hands?"
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Li Keqiang brings mainland political culture to the city.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - AUGUST 23, 2011
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Hong Kong last week was a success in some respects. He came bearing benefits from the central government such as measures to promote offshore use of the yuan, which should bolster the city's position as a financial center. However, Mr. Li failed to establish the same kind of rapport with ordinary Hong Kong people achieved by Premier Wen Jiabao, the man he is set to replace in next year's leadership transition.
Much of the blame must go to his security detail and the Hong Kong police. On his first day in the territory last Tuesday, Mr. Li visited a housing estate to express his sympathy with residents over inflation and high property prices. But the good will dissipated when one resident made the mistake of coming out of his apartment wearing a T-shirt commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Wong King was promptly bundled away by men in dark suits, who told his daughter that wearing such a shirt was "rude." To add insult to injury, the police later justified his detention by accusing him of not paying an old jay-walking fine.
The following day officials turned away legislator Leung Kwok-heung from a dinner with local politicians because he was not wearing a tie. Putting on a jacket was already a big step for Mr. Leung, who usually wears a Che Guevera T-shirt and is known as a rabble-rouser. He protested that his invitation specified "business attire" and that he attended previous banquets with national leaders in similar outfits.
On Thursday, Mr. Li gave a speech at Hong Kong University and won kudos for making a few remarks in English. But the police marred the occasion by scuffling with student protesters, pushing some of them to the ground and keeping all of them outside the hall for the duration of the event. Vice Chancellor Tsui Lap-chee later apologized for the treatment of his students.
Journalists are also upset that throughout the three-day visit security arrangements were designed to prevent them from doing their jobs properly. In at least one case, they were not even allowed into the room where Mr. Li was speaking at a public event. The Hong Kong Journalists Association marched on police headquarters this weekend to express their anger.
These incidents taken together suggest that the police were acting not to protect Mr. Li from bodily harm, but to shield him from the embarrassment of being photographed with a protester. Perhaps it is a reflection of Beijing's paranoia after the Arab Spring, but Mr. Li brought the mainland's intolerance of free expression with him to a city that claims to have the rule of law and civil liberties. Mr. Wong, the T-shirt wearer, put it best when he asked, "Are they just coming to Hong Kong to see people clapping their hands?"
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「到位」從不「到位」
拒用「到位」。不知何時開始，「到位」經常出現在報章等讀物上，但「到位」又是否用起來適得其所，即所謂「到位」呢？這需要認真檢視。
其實「到位」是一種蠶食中文的字詞，中文會因這詞而變得「失去」其他詞語，例如「達標」、「準時」、「準確」、「充足」及或「（如期）完成」等，甚至乎「（效果）良好」、「妥當」等都莫名其妙地被「取代」。這長遠必然對中國語文的文化帶來負面影響。
辦報者、編輯作為「文人」，卻毫無這種意識，濫用「到位」一詞，讓人有感無奈與失望。況且，連政府的官方新聞稿也肆無忌憚地用起此詞，實在難以接受。
我想呼籲報章、政府以至各位香港人，請別胡用「到位」一詞了。
牢騷絮語：談「到位」
其實「到位」是一種蠶食中文的字詞，中文會因這詞而變得「失去」其他詞語，例如「達標」、「準時」、「準確」、「充足」及或「（如期）完成」等，甚至乎「（效果）良好」、「妥當」等都莫名其妙地被「取代」。這長遠必然對中國語文的文化帶來負面影響。
辦報者、編輯作為「文人」，卻毫無這種意識，濫用「到位」一詞，讓人有感無奈與失望。況且，連政府的官方新聞稿也肆無忌憚地用起此詞，實在難以接受。
我想呼籲報章、政府以至各位香港人，請別胡用「到位」一詞了。
牢騷絮語：談「到位」
Monday, 22 August 2011
Hong Kong Foreign Labor Law Challenged
Hong Kong Foreign Labor Law Challenged
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - AUGUST 21, 2011
By ISABELLA STEGER And LAM THUY VO
HONG KONG—A landmark labor suit, filed by a Filipina domestic helper seeking permanent residency in Hong Kong, has struck at the core of the territory's often fraught relationship with its guest workers, and raised fundamental questions about its judicial independence from Beijing.
Evangeline Banao Vallejos has worked in Hong Kong since 1986, most of that time for the same family. If she were any other foreign worker, such as a banker, lawyer or teacher, she would automatically win the right to permanent residency after seven years. But a separate ordinance in the law states that domestic helpers are excluded from this right. She filed for residency in 2008, and is challenging the law in court.
A Filipina domestic worker is fighting for the right for permanent residency in Hong Kong's High Court. But the case strikes at the core of much more than just the right to abode. WSJ's Lam Thuy Vo and Isabella Steger report.
Lawyers will argue the case in the territory's High Court on Monday. Ms. Vallejos's lawyer says the immigration statute discriminates against her and violates the territory's Basic Law, the legal foundation Hong Kong inherited from the British before the colony came back under Chinese rule in 1997. Basic Law is the foundation for Hong Kong's separate status under China's "one-country, two systems" policy.
Permanent residency in Hong Kong means a person can remain in the territory indefinitely, and they cannot be deported, according to the Basic Law. They also win the right to vote and to stand in elections.
Human-rights advocates say a ruling in favor of Ms. Vallejos would represent a significant step toward dismantling the system that treats domestic workers as second-tier residents.
"Basically, the work that domestic helpers are doing—looking after the children, looking after the elderly, doing the cooking and cleaning, allowing the Hong Kong people to be able to work full-time—is a very significant contribution to Hong Kong's economy," said Danilo Brolado, a pastor at the New Beginnings Christian Fellowship.
Hong Kong's current labor laws exclude the more than 270,000 domestic workers living in the territory. Foreign laborers are widely seen as integral to the territory's way of life, with middle- to upper-class residents hiring helpers—typically women from the Philippines and Indonesia— to handle household duties and help with child care.
Working conditions for domestic helpers can vary greatly, with little to no oversight by the government. Most live with their employers, who are required to give their helpers at least one day off each week, though advocacy groups say the time-off requirement isn't always honored. The government-mandated minimum wage for domestic helpers is 3,740 Hong Kong dollars (about US$480) a month, including rudimentary room and board.
Opponents of the effort to amend the labor law say prospect of allowing domestic workers to stay permanently would lead to an influx of migrants and their families, straining Hong Kong's resources.
"All this will pose a lot of effects on Hong Kong society as a whole—on the job market, public housing, welfare and education," says Starry Lee, a lawmaker in the pro-Beijing party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong.
Ms. Lee says 100,000 workers would qualify for permanent residency, a figure that couldn't be confirmed and which worker advocates dispute. Hong Kong's Immigration Department refused to disclose the number, citing the ongoing litigation.
"What's at stake is the credibility of Hong Kong, of treating all residents of Hong Kong equally," says Holly Allan, manager of the nonprofit organization Helpers for Domestic Helpers. She says the current system makes domestic workers vulnerable to abuse from employers, as well as predatory employment agencies, because losing a job means possible deportation.
In a legal twist that is worrying some experts, politicians in the territory are calling for the court to refer the case to Beijing authorities under a rarely used provision of the Basic Law. Skeptics say such referrals undermine the Hong Kong judiciary's independence.
Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker who says she would prefer to send the case to the mainland, dismisses concerns over Hong Kong's legal system, saying that the provision about consulting Beijing is part of the Basic Law.
Others see a referral to Beijing as an abdication of responsibility and a troubling sign that Hong Kong's courts will more and more turn to Beijing rather than rule on potentially unpopular decisions.
"If they are not going to uphold and respect the courts and they are going to Beijing for a reinterpretation...you can effectively then take the Basic Law and rip it up," says Mark Daly, the lawyer representing Ms. Vallejos.
Benita Gebaya, 45 years old, worked for more than seven years in Hong Kongbefore returning to the Philippines in 2002 to start a family. She has been back in Hong Kong for nearly the past two years and recently parted ways with her employer. Despite her previous tenure, she has only two weeks from her last day of work to find a new job before she loses her right to stay.
"If the government will push through this right to abode, it's good for us," she says. "We could have freedom and we could work not only as a domestic worker." Ms. Gebaya has her sights set on moving to Canada, where she can become a citizen after three years and bring her family there.
Juliet, 46, a domestic helper from the Philippines who declined to give her last name, says the current law is "quite discriminatory." Her employers, French fashion executives, qualify for permanent residency after seven years, while she never can.
Hong Kong is "looking down on us," she said. "Without us, most of our employers couldn't work," she added.
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - AUGUST 21, 2011
By ISABELLA STEGER And LAM THUY VO
HONG KONG—A landmark labor suit, filed by a Filipina domestic helper seeking permanent residency in Hong Kong, has struck at the core of the territory's often fraught relationship with its guest workers, and raised fundamental questions about its judicial independence from Beijing.
Evangeline Banao Vallejos has worked in Hong Kong since 1986, most of that time for the same family. If she were any other foreign worker, such as a banker, lawyer or teacher, she would automatically win the right to permanent residency after seven years. But a separate ordinance in the law states that domestic helpers are excluded from this right. She filed for residency in 2008, and is challenging the law in court.
A Filipina domestic worker is fighting for the right for permanent residency in Hong Kong's High Court. But the case strikes at the core of much more than just the right to abode. WSJ's Lam Thuy Vo and Isabella Steger report.
Lawyers will argue the case in the territory's High Court on Monday. Ms. Vallejos's lawyer says the immigration statute discriminates against her and violates the territory's Basic Law, the legal foundation Hong Kong inherited from the British before the colony came back under Chinese rule in 1997. Basic Law is the foundation for Hong Kong's separate status under China's "one-country, two systems" policy.
Permanent residency in Hong Kong means a person can remain in the territory indefinitely, and they cannot be deported, according to the Basic Law. They also win the right to vote and to stand in elections.
Human-rights advocates say a ruling in favor of Ms. Vallejos would represent a significant step toward dismantling the system that treats domestic workers as second-tier residents.
"Basically, the work that domestic helpers are doing—looking after the children, looking after the elderly, doing the cooking and cleaning, allowing the Hong Kong people to be able to work full-time—is a very significant contribution to Hong Kong's economy," said Danilo Brolado, a pastor at the New Beginnings Christian Fellowship.
Hong Kong's current labor laws exclude the more than 270,000 domestic workers living in the territory. Foreign laborers are widely seen as integral to the territory's way of life, with middle- to upper-class residents hiring helpers—typically women from the Philippines and Indonesia— to handle household duties and help with child care.
Working conditions for domestic helpers can vary greatly, with little to no oversight by the government. Most live with their employers, who are required to give their helpers at least one day off each week, though advocacy groups say the time-off requirement isn't always honored. The government-mandated minimum wage for domestic helpers is 3,740 Hong Kong dollars (about US$480) a month, including rudimentary room and board.
Opponents of the effort to amend the labor law say prospect of allowing domestic workers to stay permanently would lead to an influx of migrants and their families, straining Hong Kong's resources.
"All this will pose a lot of effects on Hong Kong society as a whole—on the job market, public housing, welfare and education," says Starry Lee, a lawmaker in the pro-Beijing party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong.
Ms. Lee says 100,000 workers would qualify for permanent residency, a figure that couldn't be confirmed and which worker advocates dispute. Hong Kong's Immigration Department refused to disclose the number, citing the ongoing litigation.
"What's at stake is the credibility of Hong Kong, of treating all residents of Hong Kong equally," says Holly Allan, manager of the nonprofit organization Helpers for Domestic Helpers. She says the current system makes domestic workers vulnerable to abuse from employers, as well as predatory employment agencies, because losing a job means possible deportation.
In a legal twist that is worrying some experts, politicians in the territory are calling for the court to refer the case to Beijing authorities under a rarely used provision of the Basic Law. Skeptics say such referrals undermine the Hong Kong judiciary's independence.
Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker who says she would prefer to send the case to the mainland, dismisses concerns over Hong Kong's legal system, saying that the provision about consulting Beijing is part of the Basic Law.
Others see a referral to Beijing as an abdication of responsibility and a troubling sign that Hong Kong's courts will more and more turn to Beijing rather than rule on potentially unpopular decisions.
"If they are not going to uphold and respect the courts and they are going to Beijing for a reinterpretation...you can effectively then take the Basic Law and rip it up," says Mark Daly, the lawyer representing Ms. Vallejos.
Benita Gebaya, 45 years old, worked for more than seven years in Hong Kongbefore returning to the Philippines in 2002 to start a family. She has been back in Hong Kong for nearly the past two years and recently parted ways with her employer. Despite her previous tenure, she has only two weeks from her last day of work to find a new job before she loses her right to stay.
"If the government will push through this right to abode, it's good for us," she says. "We could have freedom and we could work not only as a domestic worker." Ms. Gebaya has her sights set on moving to Canada, where she can become a citizen after three years and bring her family there.
Juliet, 46, a domestic helper from the Philippines who declined to give her last name, says the current law is "quite discriminatory." Her employers, French fashion executives, qualify for permanent residency after seven years, while she never can.
Hong Kong is "looking down on us," she said. "Without us, most of our employers couldn't work," she added.
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Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Beijing's Hong Kong Problem
Beijing's Hong Kong Problem
An unaccountable government stokes public anger.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - AUGUST 15, 2011
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang's official visit to Hong Kong this week strongly suggests that he is set to succeed Wen Jiabao next year as the country's premier. As Willy Lam writes nearby, Beijing often uses state visits to announce ascendant leaders. When he was vice president, Hu Jintao took a coming-out trip to the U.S. in April 2002, just a few months before becoming Party Secretary.
But the choice of Hong Kong for Mr. Li's debut as the lead contender indicates how seriously Beijing is taking the present tense state of politics within the special administrative region. Despite the territory's continuing economic prosperity, the local political scene looks increasingly unstable amid rising public anger.
It seems that Hong Kong's government of mostly Beijing-appointed officials can make no decision—on dealing with stratospheric property prices, on carrying out big infrastructure projects, on letting go of some of its budget surplus—without stoking public ire. Polls show local residents giving leaders record-low approval ratings. Public protests, a fixture of political life in the territory, are becoming less peaceful; demonstrators at one rally this year dubbed it a "Bauhinia Revolution," a nod to people power movements in the Arab world. Hong Kong's leaders are starting to look more like hapless small-town councilmen than the administrators of a global city. This has Beijing nervous.
What's behind the mess? Wang Guangya, Beijing's top diplomat in the SAR, blames Britain. He told a group of Hong Kong students last month that as a result of colonial rule, the territory's civil servants "don't know how to be their own bosses and masters." Fourteen years after the handover to China, Mr. Wang said, Hong Kong's bureaucrats are stuck in an "I'll do what you tell me what to do" mentality. "Hong Kong was made and marred by Britain," Mr. Wang said.
The remarks touched a nerve. Chief Executive Donald Tsang, himself a former bureaucrat, declared that Hong Kong's civil service was "one of the finest in the world." Others, mostly in the pro-Beijing faction of local politicians, cheered Mr. Wang's forthrightness in decrying the incompetence of Hong Kong's many civil-servants-turned-ministers.
But to blame Hong Kong's governance woes on colonial aftereffects is wrong. Britain did much to transfer power to local bodies over the course of the colonial period. After 1913, London made no attempts to disallow locally enacted ordinances despite constitutional arrangements that gave it clear power to do so. From 1958 on, Hong Kong's annual budget was not referred to London; Britain managed only the territory's foreign policy. Advisory committees for making policy on certain issues made colonial governance consultative, if still far from democratic.
Colonial administrators took initiative on broad policy direction, too—which suggests the opposite of Mr. Wang's charge that Hong Kong's civil servants don't know how to think long-term. On many issues, the local administration governed in open defiance of trends in London. In the 1960s, as Finance Secretary John Cowperthwaite was refashioning Hong Kong as a laboratory for laissez-faire economic policies, planners in both Labour and Tory governments were busy trying to pick winners in British industry.
The real problem is that Hong Kong's society has developed while its rulers remain undemocratic and unaccountable. SAR residents' dissatisfaction will only increase until their territory has a system of government that can win and keep public trust because that government is fully accountable to the public.
Beijing worries about unrest in Hong Kong, but here as elsewhere its hands-on approach can at best buy short-term stability, and then only at the expense of longer-term legitimacy. Mr. Li has a reputation as a reformer, as Willy Lam writes. Hong Kong's people will be watching to see if he is willing to trust them with a bigger role in government—the only way to repair the deficiencies truly at the heart of the territory's unhappiness.
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An unaccountable government stokes public anger.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - AUGUST 15, 2011
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang's official visit to Hong Kong this week strongly suggests that he is set to succeed Wen Jiabao next year as the country's premier. As Willy Lam writes nearby, Beijing often uses state visits to announce ascendant leaders. When he was vice president, Hu Jintao took a coming-out trip to the U.S. in April 2002, just a few months before becoming Party Secretary.
But the choice of Hong Kong for Mr. Li's debut as the lead contender indicates how seriously Beijing is taking the present tense state of politics within the special administrative region. Despite the territory's continuing economic prosperity, the local political scene looks increasingly unstable amid rising public anger.
It seems that Hong Kong's government of mostly Beijing-appointed officials can make no decision—on dealing with stratospheric property prices, on carrying out big infrastructure projects, on letting go of some of its budget surplus—without stoking public ire. Polls show local residents giving leaders record-low approval ratings. Public protests, a fixture of political life in the territory, are becoming less peaceful; demonstrators at one rally this year dubbed it a "Bauhinia Revolution," a nod to people power movements in the Arab world. Hong Kong's leaders are starting to look more like hapless small-town councilmen than the administrators of a global city. This has Beijing nervous.
What's behind the mess? Wang Guangya, Beijing's top diplomat in the SAR, blames Britain. He told a group of Hong Kong students last month that as a result of colonial rule, the territory's civil servants "don't know how to be their own bosses and masters." Fourteen years after the handover to China, Mr. Wang said, Hong Kong's bureaucrats are stuck in an "I'll do what you tell me what to do" mentality. "Hong Kong was made and marred by Britain," Mr. Wang said.
The remarks touched a nerve. Chief Executive Donald Tsang, himself a former bureaucrat, declared that Hong Kong's civil service was "one of the finest in the world." Others, mostly in the pro-Beijing faction of local politicians, cheered Mr. Wang's forthrightness in decrying the incompetence of Hong Kong's many civil-servants-turned-ministers.
But to blame Hong Kong's governance woes on colonial aftereffects is wrong. Britain did much to transfer power to local bodies over the course of the colonial period. After 1913, London made no attempts to disallow locally enacted ordinances despite constitutional arrangements that gave it clear power to do so. From 1958 on, Hong Kong's annual budget was not referred to London; Britain managed only the territory's foreign policy. Advisory committees for making policy on certain issues made colonial governance consultative, if still far from democratic.
Colonial administrators took initiative on broad policy direction, too—which suggests the opposite of Mr. Wang's charge that Hong Kong's civil servants don't know how to think long-term. On many issues, the local administration governed in open defiance of trends in London. In the 1960s, as Finance Secretary John Cowperthwaite was refashioning Hong Kong as a laboratory for laissez-faire economic policies, planners in both Labour and Tory governments were busy trying to pick winners in British industry.
The real problem is that Hong Kong's society has developed while its rulers remain undemocratic and unaccountable. SAR residents' dissatisfaction will only increase until their territory has a system of government that can win and keep public trust because that government is fully accountable to the public.
Beijing worries about unrest in Hong Kong, but here as elsewhere its hands-on approach can at best buy short-term stability, and then only at the expense of longer-term legitimacy. Mr. Li has a reputation as a reformer, as Willy Lam writes. Hong Kong's people will be watching to see if he is willing to trust them with a bigger role in government—the only way to repair the deficiencies truly at the heart of the territory's unhappiness.
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