Border reopening and choice of new ministers at top of Beijing talks, incoming Hong Kong leader says
- John Lee returns from four-day visit to capital, where he met leaders Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang
- In the meeting with Xi, the president said Hong Kong’s electoral revamp had given city a system ‘to be cherished and upheld in the long run’
Incoming Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu returned home from Beijing on Tuesday with instructions to form a top team of like-minded officials to help him implement his policies as he embarks on a new chapter for the city.
A day after meeting China’s top leaders and receiving his formal letter of appointment before he is sworn in as chief executive on July 1, Lee said he would respond as soon as possible so that the central government could approve his ministerial team.
The former career policeman and security chief said he had also told Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that many Hongkongers were eager to see the full reopening of the city’s border with mainland China.
But Lee acknowledged the challenges ahead in achieving that goal, with the city continuing to report hundreds of Covid-19 infections per day and still striving to have 90 per cent of the eligible population inoculated with at least two vaccine doses.
“I will do my utmost, live up to the trust of the central government, and the expectations of residents,” he said.
During his four-day visit, Lee also met Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed potential principal officials with Xia Baolong, the director of the cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
“I told him that I will fulfil my responsibility and form the city’s team of ministers as soon as possible for Beijing’s consideration and appointment,” he said. “Mr Xia agreed that it is important to form a team which will help me to implement my policies and directions. It is also important that we share the common values and the general direction [in which] … the sixth term government will be proceeding.”
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Lee also quoted the premier as telling him that Hong Kong should “do the best we can to control the pandemic”.
“I explained to him that there have been many requests for us to consider resuming travel with the mainland, but there are a lot of challenges and difficulties we need to overcome,” he said. “I’ve indicated that when I assume office, I will start seeking communication with the mainland side so as to explain the Hong Kong situation to them.”
Before stepping down as the city’s No 2 official, Lee led a government team in talks with the mainland side over resuming quarantine-free travel, but the negotiations were pushed to the sidelines by the fifth wave of infections, which has only recently abated. During his campaign, he vowed to put reopening the border at the top of his agenda.
In his meeting with Lee, Xi touched on Beijing’s revamp of the electoral system last year and said the overhaul had given Hong Kong a “democratic political system which fit ‘one country, two systems’” and “must be cherished and upheld in the long run”.
Asked whether he would seek political reforms during his term, Lee only said: “President Xi has made it clear that the improved electoral system is in full conformation with the principle of one country, two systems … and it should be maintained for a very long period of time. The sixth term government will of course uphold this direction.”
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Lee was speaking hours after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said Hong Kong’s revamped electoral system must be upheld in the long run to safeguard national security, but the guarantee for universal suffrage in the city’s mini-constitution remained valid.
Lam noted that the electoral system in the past was unable to prevent anti-China activists from entering political institutions and was partly to blame for some difficulties faced by the city in the last two decades.
“This is why the improved electoral system has to be upheld in the long run.”
State media previously reported that during Xi’s meeting with Lee on Monday, the president pointed to the three major polls Hong Kong had held since the electoral reform.
“This proves that the new electoral system has played a decisive role in ensuring ‘patriots administer Hong Kong’,” Xi said. “This is a democratic political system which fits one country, two systems … It must be cherished and upheld in the long run.”
Asked whether that meant the electoral system would remain unchanged in the coming decade, Lam said: “What President Xi said was accurate. Hong Kong went through many challenges after the handover, and it is more or less because our electoral system was not good enough.
“But Article 45 of the Basic Law is still valid. We can fulfil the article’s requirement, and achieve the goal of electing the chief executive by universal suffrage gradually and in accordance with Hong Kong’s actual situation.”
Under the article, the method for selecting the chief executive shall be “specified in the light of the actual situation” in Hong Kong and in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress. “The ultimate aim is the selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage,” it states.
Lee also touched on the revamped electoral system in an interview published by state news agency Xinhua on Monday.
As the chief executive elected under the new system, Lee said he was responsible for forming a governing team with ministers who loved the country and the city.
The executive and legislative branches would be communicating and working with each other to “unleash the value of ‘patriots administering Hong Kong’” and ensure effective governance, he added.
Lee said he hoped that in the next five years, Hong Kong would become a vibrant and inclusive metropolis where people from all walks of life could benefit from the city’s strengths.
The song, titled Heading Forward, features 28 singers across different generations. They include veteran stars such as Jacky Cheung Hok-yau and Joey Yung Cho-yee, as well as younger performers including Gigi Yim Ming-hay, singer-songwriter AGA and Malaysian artist Gin Lee.
The star power has been ramped up compared with celebrations five years ago, when 10 artists jointly recorded the song Hong Kong Our Home.
But 15-year-old singer Chantel Yiu and fencer Cheung Siu-lun, who were expected to join the group in singing this year’s number, were notably absent.
Lam was also asked on Tuesday whether senior civil servants would get a record pay rise as earlier reported.
Last Wednesday, major civil service unions endorsed an advisory committee’s controversial suggestion that senior government staff receive a pay increase of up to 7.26 per cent.
But the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce called the proposal “out of touch with reality” and warned approving it could cause a “ripple effect across the whole economy”.
Lam said the suggestions were raised based on the findings of an independent pay trends survey, and the Executive Council, her de facto cabinet, had yet to make a decision on the matter.
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“Many people said the findings were detached from Hong Kong’s economic and employment situation, and when Exco discusses this topic, we will consider this,” she said.
“As the secretary for the civil service has said, we have been following this practice repeatedly in previous years on not just rigidly following survey results to adjust civil services wages on an annual basis.”
Lam said that in considering the issue, Exco would take into account six factors: pay trend survey findings, the state of Hong Kong’s economy, the government’s fiscal position, changes in the cost of living, pay claims from staff and civil service morale.
