Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday urged chief executive-elect Leung Chun-ying to maintain a clean government, amid an outbreak of corruption scandals surrounding Hong Kong's top officials. It is the first time since the handover that a state leader has placed such expectations on the city's most senior official.
Speaking in Beijing after presenting Leung with his official appointment as chief executive, the premier also highlighted the need for unity after last month's divisive chief executive election - which is seen to have caused a split in the pro-establishment camp.
Citing a passage from The Analects of Confucius in the meeting in Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound in Beijing, Wen said: 'To govern means being upright. If you lead the people by being upright and set a good example for others, who will dare not behave correctly?'
Wen also told Leung: 'Those pursuing a political career should be corruption-free. As people, we should be corruption-free. As such, it will ensure smooth governance and a harmonious society as well as unify people's hearts and turn a new chapter in governance.'
In the past few weeks former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan, along with the joint chairmen of the Sung Hung Kai Properties empire, brothers Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, have been arrested by the ICAC in a probe into allegations of bribery and misconduct in office, and the anti-graft body has placed Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen under investigation for accepting favours from tycoon friends.
Wen has quoted Confucius' teachings to Hong Kong's leaders before - in June 2005, when he cited another passage in The Analects to stress that Tsang's task would be arduous, and again two years later when he told Tsang that his job was a responsibility that lasted until death.
