Politics

Hong Kong authorities have condemned attempts by anti-China forces and foreign media to sugarcoat the criminal acts of jailed former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, while defending the city’s press freedom after the release of a global index.The government issued a strongly worded statement in the early hours of Friday, slamming the attempts to slander, smear and attack the city “by releasing a so-called press freedom index”, saying that “such despicable behaviours totally disregarded the rule of law and twisted the facts”.“Some media organisations and organisations that claim to represent journalists have conflated the criminal acts in the Lai Chee-ying case with freedom of the press,” a government spokesman said.“[They] have even played up different cases to vilify [Hong Kong], with the ...

A Hong Kong policeman turned public relations adviser will be promoted to lead the government’s Information Services Department, the South China Morning Post has learned.John Tse Chun-chung, who has served as the government’s information coordinator since 2024, is expected to take up the post on a three-year contract as early as Tuesday.Tse, 49, joined the police force in 1999. He became a well-known face during the 2019 social unrest, when he led the force’s daily press conferences while still a chief superintendent.Instead of internal promotion, the government announced in February an open recruitment exercise for two director-level positions, marking the first time it has invited applications for the posts of director of information services and director of food and environmental hygien...

Congratulations to Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po for getting the city’s budget to sail through the Legislative Council. It wasn’t always such smooth sailing and Chan would do well to acknowledge as much.When Chan was first given the keys to the city’s coffers, they were full. Successive financial secretaries faced political pressure of a very different kind. There weren’t many issues that opposing parties saw eye to eye on. However, accusing the government of hoarding cash and not giving out enough “sweeteners” was the one thing they did manage to agree on.Chan should recall the battles he had to fight after delivering his second budget in 2018. It was another year when the government had recorded a record surplus. Political parties – friend and foe alike – threatened to veto it if h...

Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs and a senior national energy official have held meetings with CLP Holdings chairman Michael Kadoorie, with observers saying it signalled the firm was expected to help minimise livelihood disruptions amid the ongoing global fuel crisis and support the Northern Metropolis megaproject.The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said its director, Xia Baolong, spoke with Kadoorie, his son Philip Kadoorie and the senior management of energy firm CLP Power in Beijing on Wednesday, but stopped short of revealing any further details.The tycoon and his team also met with He Yang, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, on Thursday.The bureau-level organisation said the meeting focused on ensuring a secure electricity supply amid a complex internati...

Where exactly does the buck stop? Senior Hong Kong civil servants are asking themselves that question after the unveiling of a new accountability system targeting department heads.They point to the deadly Tai Po fire last year as an example. An independent committee investigating the tragedy heard evidence officials gave contractors at the blaze-hit Wang Fuk Court estate advance notice of inspections, potentially allowing problems to be concealed before fire-safety checks on scaffolding nets.Who is at fault for the notice: the frontline officers involved or the senior civil servant overseeing them?“Opinions are divided among ourselves,” said a veteran civil servant, speaking on condition of anonymity. “In this case, the senior official can say this was an execution problem by frontline sta...

More than 10,000 posts in the Hong Kong government will be cut by the end of June 2027, with close to 60 per cent being junior roles and about 3 per cent at the senior level, a minister has vowed.Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan said on Monday the move was not “fattening the top but thinning the bottom” and was reasonable because the government workforce had far more frontline staff.Yeung was briefing legislators on her bureau’s budget for 2026-27 during a special Finance Committee meeting.“The reduction in establishment is the most direct way to cut actual expenditure as the financial provisions for personal emoluments allocated to bureaus and departments are calculated based on the number of posts rather than headcounts,” she said.“With the reduction in establishme...

Hong Kong authorities will take public opinion into account when deciding whether to trigger a new investigation mechanism to hold senior officials accountable for problems identified, the city’s civil service minister has said.Permanent secretaries of bureaus – who are not covered by the proposed “Heads of Department Accountability System” – would also face scrutiny if they were found to be involved in management failures, Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan said on Saturday.Under the new mechanism, the chief executive, department secretaries or bureau directors can initiate investigations by the Public Service Commission, an independent statutory body that advises on civil service appointments and promotions, if they deem problems in a department to be “widespread, re...

Kudos to the Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan for introducing a two-tier civil service accountability system. This will include giving an independent statutory body, the Public Service Commission, powers to investigate “widespread, repetitive and systemic” management problems, while department heads can investigate problems involving rank-and-file officers.To many, the revamp of the civil service accountability system is long overdue. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has set his mind on this since his last policy address.Recent government fumbles such as the bottled water procurement scandal and seat belt fiasco and the Tai Po fire tragedy have made expanding the political accountability system to the civil service necessary and urgent. The rules are well established...

For the first time in its history – and in a striking departure from its long-standing doctrine of minimal economic intervention – Hong Kong is preparing to draw up a five-year plan.Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has asked all policy bureaus to help draft proposals by the end of the year. To lead the exercise, veteran civil servant Janice Tse Siu-wah has come out of retirement. The Legislative Council, not to be left out, has formed a committee supported by six coordinating groups spanning nearly every major policy domain.This is more than an administrative exercise. It marks a fundamental shift in Hong Kong’s economic philosophy.For decades, the city has prided itself on low taxes, light regulation and market-led growth. Now it is moving – cautiously but unmistakably – towards a model m...

The Hong Kong government should use its proposed accountability system prudently to investigate department heads and avoid undermining morale among civil servants, a top adviser to the city’s leader has said.But Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, convenor of the city’s top decision-making Executive Council, stressed on Sunday that the system would serve as a reminder for leaders to actively spot deficiencies in their departments and “do better in handling residents’ complaints”.In a televised interview, Ip, a former security chief and director of immigration, said the government should not launch an investigation just because a problem was persistent, but also take into account how departments responded and whether any probe truly improved administrative efficiency.“The government will someday trigger...