It has been 25 years into Hong Kong’s reunification with its motherland, yet some people keep wondering whether “one country, two systems” will remain unchanged in future. I reckon that the basic principle of “one country, two systems” won’t change, as the framework has served Hong Kong well, but its implementation mechanism will advance with […]
Nearly 25 years ago, Hong Kong was in the throes of preparing for the handover and Hong Kong residents reveled under the Chinese national flag, as the city was about to be, rightfully so, returned to China at the stroke of midnight on June 30, 1997. Fast-forward to 2022, and Hong Kong is once again […]
As the aphorism says, “Today is yesterday’s pupil”. As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, we should equip ourselves much better for the next 25 years and beyond by reviewing the great challenges and crises that almost brought down the city in the past. Almost immediately […]
Despite having a vibrant economy led by a thriving financial industry, Hong Kong is bedeviled by some deep-seated problems that call for timely solutions and commitment for change. Hong Kong is at a critical juncture as it moves from stability to prosperity. As President Xi Jinping said during the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s 20th-anniversary […]
It was an extraordinary and bumpy journey for Hong Kong’s first 25 years after its return to the motherland. The “one country, two systems” principle has been tested by various daunting challenges. Yet we can proudly say that Hong Kong has braved through them all. Some say that Hong Kong is a blessed land, and […]
In March 2021, Beijing made the belated and momentous decision to drastically revamp Hong Kong’s electoral system, which forbade “anti-China” elements and their external patrons from contending in the elections for the Election Committee, the Legislative Council and the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. They were hence also excluded thenceforth from […]
The 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is a good time not only for reflecting on the significant achievements the HKSAR has made but also for looking forward to a much brighter future to be realized by leveraging new advantages. As Wang Linggui, deputy director of the Hong Kong […]
The 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China is being celebrated with much fanfare and cautious jubilation. Standing in stark contrast in some foreign quarters, however, is a sense of foreboding or outright assertion of “one country, two systems” demise after the introduction of the National Security Law for Hong Kong in June 2020 […]
Now that the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong” is in place to keep the subversives at bay and ensure Hong Kong’s stability, the city’s future success will hinge on whether John Lee Ka-chiu’s governance team can significantly improve its governance capabilities by recruiting enough professionals and leverage their expertise, aside from filling the new […]
The Department of Justice (DoJ) organized three legal conferences on three consecutive days from May 26-28. Each of the conferences had its own theme, which were “Vision 2030 for Rule of Law”, for the international law symposium; “Stability to Prosperity”, for the legal conference on the Basic Law; and “Thrive with the Security”, for the […]
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has gone through 25 years of ups and downs in the post-handover period, and it is the right time to review how we can leverage the “one country, two systems” policy better to take the city to a new dimension of development in the next 25 years and beyond. […]
The month of May has seen Hong Kong entering into a new era. Three elections have been successfully held since the implementation of the improved electoral system, which has blown a breath of fresh air into the special administrative region’s political ecosystem. No more incessant politicization of anything and everything. Nowadays, proposals and ideas are […]
HONG KONG, May 29, 2022 – (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) – The Director-General of Investment Promotion, Mr Stephen Phillips, today (May 29) started his duty visit to Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Kuwait in the Middle East, and Amsterdam, Lisbon and Madrid in Europe as part of the latest efforts of Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) […]
HONG KONG, May 29, 2022 – (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) – The Director-General of Investment Promotion of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Stephen Phillips, today (May 29) started his duty visit to Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Kuwait in the Middle East, and Amsterdam, Lisbon and Madrid in Europe as part of the […]
Amid talk about “economic decoupling” and “financial Cold War”, some Western politicians and media outlets are feverishly prophesying again the “inevitable” decline or demise of Hong Kong as an international center for finance and commerce. These prophets of doom have been obsessed with foretelling Hong Kong’s demise for decades since the 1980s, when the idea […]
Since time immemorial, the way Hong Kong has been governed is variously characterized as laissez-faire, “light-touch administration”, “hands-off governance”, “small government, big market”, or, most popularly, “positive non-interventionism” (PN). The common denominator of these appellations is a limited government, a government that is minimally involved in economic and social affairs, allowing the market and social […]
In the Outline Development Plan (ODP) for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area released by the central government three years ago, it is hoped that the GBA will become an international technology innovation hub. To achieve this, it stated clearly that Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macao should build an open and interoperable regional innovation […]
It is fanciful, to put it mildly, to expect that the special administrative region government has the ability to implement the Lantau Tomorrow Vision and the Northern Metropolis (NM) simultaneously without stretching our financial resources and engineering human capital to the breaking point. In the long term, the excellent infrastructural foundation laid down by the […]
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which has been performing some of the CIA’s functions, has set aside a part of its annual budget over recent years, with the last known allocation of $75,000 made in its 2021 budget, to identify and train so-called “citizen journalists” in Hong Kong, who are expected to propagate anti-government […]
Nobody could fairly say that the role of the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is an easy job; terrifically well-paid, though it is. That, perhaps, explains just why it is that there was only one candidate for election to the position. But be that as it may, we can hope […]
Hong Kong, once the most dynamic and vibrant city in Asia, is losing its competitive edge. People may argue this is because of the unfavorable external factors such as geopolitical conflicts and the pandemic. However, internal factors also play an important role in weakening Hong Kong’s competitiveness. The development of Hong Kong in the 1960s […]
The rule of law remains the cornerstone of Hong Kong’s status as an international financial, trade and logistics center as well as a center for international legal and dispute-resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region. In the full implementation of “one country, two systems” and the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s rule-of-law ranking has always been at […]
May 8, 2022, is a historic day for Hong Kong. John Lee Ka-chiu, a veteran civil servant, was elected sixth-term chief executive of Hong Kong with 1,416, or 99 percent, of the votes cast. This makes him the candidate elected with the largest majority in the last 15 years. Under improved electoral rules made by […]
Photo taken on July 14, 2020 shows the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong. (PHOTO / XINHUA) There was a time, not so long ago, when some members-elect of the Hong Kong Legislative Council displayed banners reading "Hong Kong independence" at their swearing-in ceremony. They were later disqualified for their show of contempt to their […]
The newly completed chief executive election has set the milestone for Hong Kong to move away from its roller-coaster ride over recent years, featuring the social unrest in 2019 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the enactment of the National Security Law for Hong Kong in June 2020 and the revamp of the city’s electoral […]
Pictures of Hong Kong residents struggling with squalid or suffocating dwelling environments, such as “cage homes”, subdivided flats and “nano flats”, have long proliferated all over the internet and frequently appeared on various media channels. These unpalatable illustrations of Hong Kong’s severe housing shortage in no way tally with the city’s status as a major […]
It is hoped that the European Union High Representative’s criticism of Hong Kong’s revamped electoral system and the just-completed chief executive election is merely a misguided gesture or knee-jerk reaction, rather than an attempt to stoke anti-Beijing sentiment as part of the ongoing geopolitical campaign in the West to beat China and contain its rise. […]
The election of John Lee Ka-chiu as the sixth-term chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region heralds a new era of political stability and economic rejuvenation for the SAR. Lee devoted the largest part of his election manifesto to six major policy scopes aimed at enhancing the city’s global competitiveness and ensuring sustainable […]
The election of the sixth-term chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, wherein John Lee Ka-chiu won a landslide victory, is a landmark event in the history of the implementation of “one country, two systems” (OCTS). This election is historically significant because it signifies that OCTS has entered a new phase wherein the […]
It was the original intent of and a prerequisite for the implementation of “one country, two systems”, upon China resuming the exercise of sovereign rule over Hong Kong, to ensure that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to be established under this framework would be run by patriots for the interests of both the nation […]