Politics

The sole lawmaker-elect of the centrist Roundtable party in Hong Kong has said his victory in the recent Legislative Council election could embolden more moderate and outspoken politicians to contest future polls.Mark Chong Ho-fung also called on the government to strengthen oversight to improve public trust, citing two cases: the bottled water scandal and the use of substandard scaffolding nets suspected to have exacerbated the rapid spread of last month’s catastrophic fire in Tai Po.The 41-year-old politician secured more than 34,000 votes in the December 7 Legco election, succeeding outgoing veteran lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun, who founded the party.In an interview with the Post, Chong said he faced tremendous pressure throughout the campaign, as the election outcome was seen as pivot...

Voter turnout in the recent Legislative Council election was affected by Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, recording the second-lowest rate since the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, despite a modest rise from the previous poll, the constitutional affairs chief has said.Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai stressed on Sunday that the government had not set a “hard indicator” for the turnout rate in the December 7 Legco poll, which reached 31.9 per cent.“I believe the fire had an impact on the election … We understand that there are different views. Some said they were not in the mood to vote amid a heavy atmosphere, while some hoped Legco could be formed as soon as possible for follow-up work and reforms to turn grief and sorrow into stre...

A city’s character is not tested on a good day, but in the quiet hours after a disaster, when the smoke settles, sirens fade and residents look at the charred outline of a home that used to anchor an entire life.The Tai Po fire, which engulfed several blocks of subsidised government housing and left families displaced overnight, has forced Hong Kong into a rare moment of civic introspection. A tragedy on this scale is a stress test of our assumptions about urban planning, insurance, finance and the social contracts we take for granted.The predictable first reflex is blame. Blame the contractors, the inspectors, “the system”. But anyone who has spent time around construction contracts knows there is no single villain waiting to be neatly identified. The reality is messier. Some contracts pu...

Hong Kong’s Democratic Party has announced what many people had been expecting for some time – that it would disband. For the party, this is the beginning of the end; for others, the question lingers: is this also the end of the democratic movement in Hong Kong?One thing is certain: the party’s demise will mark the end of an era, one when a colonial pressure-group mentality dictated the quest for democratic reforms in Hong Kong, a mentality which, sadly, was destined to ensure failure of the quest.As Hong Kong’s oldest pro-democracy party, the Democratic Party was once the vanguard of the movement before the handover. In a way, the party was born with a political mindset rooted in colonial-era values, characterised by a deep-seated scepticism of the central government.After the handover, t...

The Hong Kong Bar Association’s head has called on the public and foreign governments to review the judgment against former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying before forming their opinions, saying such verdicts can spark controversy due to differing values.Speaking to the media on Wednesday, association chairman Jose-Antonio Maurellet reaffirmed that Hong Kong’s judicial independence and the rule of law were “alive and strong”.“In many jurisdictions, whether near or far from Hong Kong, a lot of judgments will raise a lot of controversy because society has become quite split in terms of its values,” he said, adding it was inevitable that intense feelings emerged over verdicts involving certain people or issues.“Very often, what people will look at is not the reasoning … I doubt that many people...

Peking University plans to establish a research institute in Hong Kong’s future university town in the Northern Metropolis, the city’s leader has said as he wrapped up his three-day duty visit to Beijing.Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu met Peking University’s party secretary He Guangcai on the campus before having breakfast with four young Hongkongers working or studying in Beijing on Wednesday.At the meeting, Lee shared the Hong Kong government’s plans to accelerate the development of the Northern Metropolis and explore the university town’s development model.“He agreed with the university town’s development plan and indicated that Peking University intends to set up a research institute in the university town in the future,” Lee said in a social media post.“I felt very encouraged and ex...

Hong Kong’s lawmakers-elect have called for more exchanges with senior officials before policy formulation as they welcomed the first sharing session on Thursday, saying it signalled the government valued ties with the legislature.About 70 of the 90 newly elected lawmakers joined the 1½-hour exchange with top government officials, including three secretaries and other bureau chiefs, focusing on two topics: the executive-legislature relationship and Hong Kong’s economic development.Lawmaker-elect Chris Ip Ngo-tung said the event was the first such exchange for successful candidates before they started their four-year term.“For a newcomer to the legislature, I was told the exchange has never been done before for lawmakers-elect,” he said. “It shows the government values the new Legco.”Hong K...

The Hong Kong Bar Association will travel to Beijing next week to meet mainland Chinese officials, becoming the first delegation to visit the capital since the city’s deadliest fire in decades and its recent Legislative Council election.Chairman Jose-Antonio Maurellet told the Post on Wednesday that the delegation would be happy to discuss possible legal reforms brought by the deadly Tai Po fire with central government authorities, including the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), Beijing’s top office overseeing the city.“If those we meet are interested in legal issues which arise from, say, law reforms in terms of building management or safety … we will be sharing what the bar has done and can do at this very difficult time,” he said.“Our aim is to continue the tradition where we ...

Former Hong Kong commerce minister Gregory So Kam-leung has died at the age of 67.It was understood that So, a lawyer by trade who served as the city’s secretary for commerce and economic development between 2011 and 2017, had been in hospital for some time before he died on Saturday morning.He oversaw a number of thorny issues during his tenure, including broadcast regulation, intellectual property protection and a controversial bid for a free-to-air broadcast licence by outspoken businessman and media executive Ricky Wong Wai-kay.So, a former chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, first joined the government in 2008 as undersecretary at the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau.Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu expressed sorrow over So’s death...

Christine Fong Kwok-shan, a long-time district councillor in Hong Kong known for defending constituents’ rights with fiery and sometimes controversial political acts, has pledged to abandon her past protest methods, now that she has been elected as a lawmaker.The city’s new “Queen of Votes” in the Legislative Council election, who previously positioned herself as an independent moderate belonging neither to the pan-democratic nor pro-establishment bloc, reaffirmed her stance as a “patriot” who was part of the pro-establishment camp, and pledged to “share honour and disgrace” with the government during her tenure.Fong, 59, finally secured a place in the legislature with her sixth bid over 17 years by winning more than 58,000 votes – the highest number among candidates – in Sunday’s election...