Goodbye district councils? Hong Kong’s area committees set to replace local bodies reeling from wave of resignations
- Government-appointed area, crime-fighting and fire safety committees step up, seeking more power, funding
- Some district councils left with too few elected members to continue functioning effectively
Twenty months after losing the district council seat he held for eight years, Hong Kong pro-establishment politician Lau Chee-sing is back, and riding high.
Not only has he been made chairman of the new Area Committee in Tai Po North, but the appointment also makes him eligible to be part of the powerful Election Committee that will pick Hong Kong’s leader next year.
In April, the Home Affairs Bureau created two new area committees in Tai Po, appointing Lau, 63, an engineer and veteran of the pro-Beijing New Territories Association of Societies, and 36 others to form the new local groups.
The government’s preference for his group, compared with the elected – and opposition-controlled — district council, was evident when his committee visited Lung Mei Beach, a 200-metre stretch of artificial beach, before it opened last month.
Lau and his team were accompanied by officials from three government departments. To ease traffic congestion, he got together with representatives of six rural villages to suggest new ferry routes to the beach.
“I don’t see the need to make suggestions via the district council,” he said. “I have the engineering expertise and all the connections with officials needed to get the job done.”