Opinion | Hong Kong must not cling to governance structures of the past

Name: What does ‘one country, two systems’ mean?
Uploaded: 2022-06-23T22:30:14.000Z
Duration: 4 min 35 s
Description: What does ‘one country, two systems’ mean?

These challenging times call for a clear-eyed review of the governmental structures and procedures underlying ‘one country, two systems’

Hong Kong needs a bolder institutional reform agenda, one placing the people’s interests above bureaucracy and adherence to an obsolete status quo

Reading Time:3 minutes

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People walk past the Chinese and Hong Kong special administrative region flags outside the government headquarters in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong on April 20, 2020. Photo: Bloomberg

Tom Fu

Published: 6:30am, 24 Jun 2022

There is a risk that Hong Kong’s adherence to “one country, two systems” has for too long meant a closed-minded and uncritical approach to governance structures established under British rule. To clarify, I oppose neither love of country nor local authority over local matters and fervently support both.

British rule at times did a lot of good for this city and beyond. However, the future progress of Hong Kong will require government reforms and bold vision.

The colonial government’s interests in establishing the regulatory structure Hong Kong maintains to this day are not necessarily our own. After a quarter of a century, that paradigm is not automatically applicable to our current reality.

Nevertheless, attempts to modernise these legacy institutions are sometimes opposed under the principle of preserving local autonomy. Respect for good traditions is laudable, but it is less so when that deference is self-destructive. When all change is treated as a threat, stagnation is the inevitable result.

04:35

What does ‘one country, two systems’ mean?

The myopic focus on issues related to the degree and nature of Hong Kong’s autonomy has influenced our government’s reluctance to exercise the powers we do have in dynamic, forward-thinking ways. Our social welfare system, for instance, is unworthy of Hong Kong’s advanced economy.