The administration that changed Hong Kong forever

The violent protests over Carrie Lam’s ill-fated fugitive offenders bill, and Beijing’s subsequent measures to assert its overall jurisdiction have caused a sea change in Hong Kong
The next chief executive bears the twin responsibilities of safeguarding national security and reviving global linkages and dynamism to recharge Hong Kong

Regina Ip

Published: 7:45am, 8 May 2022

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Five years ago, amid much fanfare about an intense, three-way contest for Hong Kong’s chief executive post, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, a veteran civil servant, was elected with 777 out of a total of 1,194 votes.

Lam’s campaign slogan was “We Connect”. After the bitter strife over the pace of Hong Kong’s political reform and the “Occupy” movement which paralysed the city for 79 days in late 2014, there were high hopes of a new chief executive who could heal the rift and bring rival factions together.

Beijing’s preference for a candidate with proven administrative ability and policy continuity was obvious, as two out of four chief executives thus far came from the elite administrative cadre of the Hong Kong civil service.

Strong administrative capabilities are a plus, but also a double-edged sword. Skill in manipulating the bureaucratic system gave Lam an edge when it came to using ploys like setting up a task force or a statutory committee of inquiry to keep controversial issues on the back burner or deflect pressure.

Yet there is only so much such bureaucratic tricks can do to kick the can down the road. If efforts are not made to find real solutions to worsening problems, such as deteriorating housing conditions, youth discontent and the underlying ideological divide, cosmetic measures that merely offer a veneer of harmony are bound to backfire.

The moment of truth came in the summer of 2019. For reasons best known to Lam, in early 2019, she threw her habitual caution to the wind and launched a controversial bill that would have allowed fugitive offenders to be sent to mainland China, as well as Macau and Taiwan, for trial.

In 2019, Hong Kong had already entered into more than a dozen bilateral arrangements for mutual assistance in the rendition of fugitive offenders with the United Kingdom, the United States and other Western countries.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam walks into a press briefing at the police headquarters in Wan Chai in the early hours of the morning of July 2 after extradition bill protesters occupied the Legislative Council complex on July 1. Photo: Edmond So

There was a crying need for a similar arrangement with mainland China as early as 1999, after the notorious gangster “Big Spender” Cheung Tze-keung and his accomplices were tried and executed on the mainland for crimes including murder, robbery, smuggling explosives and kidnapping, among others, two property tycoons in Hong Kong.

There were strong calls from the Legislative Council for an early agreement with the mainland authorities to facilitate the rendition of fugitive offenders. Differences in the criminal justice systems of the mainland and Hong Kong prevented an agreement from being reached. The issue was put on the back burner after the political uproar subsided.

It was courageous of Lam to attempt to resolve this long-outstanding impasse. A solution would have been desirable, but was not fundamental to the smooth running of Hong Kong.

In pushing the legislation, Lam and her team overlooked the dark forces that had been gathering in our society. They were foreshadowed by violent protests which broke out in late 2014 and 2016. The large-scale “peaceful, rational and non-violent” protests, as claimed by demonstrators, which started on June 9, 2019, became increasingly destructive and violent, and took on dangerous, anti-China overtones.

Purporting to fight for freedom and democracy, political and student activists went to the US and Europe to denounce China and lobby for sanctions against the country and Hong Kong. Such calls for foreign intervention have historically been abhorred by China. As Hong Kong became incapable of quelling the violence, strong measures by Beijing to subdue the protests and uproot the opposition became unavoidable.

A slew of measures taken by Beijing since June 2020 – a new law to safeguard national security in Hong Kong, strict requirements for oath-taking and assumption of public office, and an overhaul of the electoral system – introduced a sea change.

Admissions of past failings a good sign for Hong Kong’s future

The national security law brought an immediate end to violence in Hong Kong. The new laws on oath-taking and the “patriots only” electoral reform succeeded in ridding the legislature and the district councils of anti-China elements who had been drumming up disruption.

Following the Legislative Council election under new electoral rules held last December, order and efficiency have returned to the legislature. Several important pieces of legislation aimed at resolving long-standing livelihood issues were passed, or look set to be passed.

For example, a bill to abolish the Mandatory Provident Fund offsetting mechanism – under which employers can use their contributions to an employee’s MPF account to make severance or long service payments – is being discussed by Legco.

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Back in June 2014, when red lights signalling challenges to China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong started to flash, Beijing published its first-ever white paper on the implementation of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong, and pronounced emphatically that it had “overall jurisdiction” over Hong Kong.

However, Beijing did not take any action to put this into effect until the tumultuous events of 2019. They galvanised Beijing into adopting concrete measures to assert its overall jurisdiction, and those actions inaugurated a new era in the implementation of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong.

If Hong Kong is to continue to contribute to the well-being of the country by leveraging its unique, rules-based and international environment, the next chief executive must be able to bolster the city’s strengths as an international trading, business and financial hub, an agent for the continuous modernisation and opening up of China to the world, and a marketplace for the cross-fertilisation of Chinese and Western cultures.

China’s 14th five-year plan has strongly recognised Hong Kong as an international centre in eight important areas. John Lee Ka-chiu, Hong Kong’s sole sixth-term chief executive candidate, is on course to be elected today.

He bears the heavy, twin responsibilities of safeguarding national security and reviving Hong Kong’s global linkages and dynamism. With a more collaborative legislature and the threat of Covid-19 receding, the conditions are ripe for Lee to recharge Hong Kong.

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee is a lawmaker and chairwoman of the New People’s Party