Explainer: Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee’s first year in office
Hong Kong Free Press
Chief Executive John Lee has completed his first year as Hong Kong’s leader.
Lee rose through the police ranks to become security chief then chief secretary, the city’s No. 2 official. After running unopposed for top office, he was selected last May with 1,416 votes from the overhauled Election Committee, members of whom were vetted by Lee himself.
He vowed to take a “results-oriented” approach to governance, identifying 110 key performance indicators for the new administration, with indicators for housing and welfare chief among them.
Last week, shortly after his approval rating clocked in at 51.5 per cent – its lowest since he took office – Lee told reporters the administration had to make up for time lost to the Covid-19 pandemic and 2019 protests.
“That will mean full commitment by myself and my team, and we will ensure that we will contribute our best — our efforts, our time and energy — to ensure that this is done properly,” he said.
HKFP rounds up Lee’s achievements and shortcomings since taking office.
Talent and manpower
Amid a brain drain across several industries caused by an exodus of residents, Lee pledged in his maiden Policy Address last October to “snatch” talent to bolster the city’s workforce and add 35,000 workers annually from 2023 to 2025.
Lee announced on June 20 that the government had received 84,000 applications via the government’s various talent recruitment schemes, surpassing his initial goal. Among those schemes is the Top Talent Pass Scheme, introduced last October to attract high-earners and foreign graduates from top universities. The vast majority of those approved for Top Talent Pass visas are mainland Chinese.
“We have set a target for attracting 35,000 talents in each year, but in five months we have approved already 49,000 such applications. It’s likely that we will be able to meet the target [by] quite a lot,” he said.
However, various sectors – notably construction and healthcare – still face shortages, industry associations say.
The Construction Industry Council forecasts a shortfall of more than 40,000 workers and professionals by 2027 that would pose a challenge for the city’s housing crunch and development initiatives.
And under an expedited labour import scheme, Lee announced last month a plan to attract 20,000 non-local workers to help ease manpower shortages in the construction, transport and aviation sectors.
But the plan met with criticism from the pro-Beijing labour and political group the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) and the pro-democracy Democratic Party, which both said it amounted to “circumventing” the Labour Advisory Board, the non-statutory body responsible for vetting applications for labour importation.
Furthermore, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau told lawmakers in March that 1,247 full-time doctors had left their positions over the past three years, only 191 of whom were retiring. The city has launched recruitment drives overseas to try and alleviate the manpower shortage, but the attrition rate among public hospital medics continues to grow.
Hong Kong reopens
Lee took office more than two-and-a-half years into the Covid-19 pandemic, and in the aftermath of the city’s fifth wave that saw daily caseloads of around 77,000 at its peak in March.
The pressure was on for Lee to contend with the city’s isolation from mainland China and the rest of the world brought on by strict pandemic border controls and quarantine measures — when most countries had already lifted restrictions.
Less than three months into his tenure, in September, Lee announced the city would cancel its controversial Covid quarantine policy.
“[W]e are aiming in one single direction of allowing people to come with more convenience and they are allowed to go about their activities with maximum possibilities,” he told a press briefing in September.
In late December – and just weeks after Beijing announced a nationwide loosening of its own hardline restrictions following rare, widespread protests against the country’s zero-Covid policy – authorities scrapped the vaccine pass system and mandatory polymerase chain reaction tests.
Since the full reopening of the border with mainland China in February, tourism numbers have risen gradually. By May, visitor arrivals were at 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, with arrivals from mainland China accounting for 80 per cent of the 10 million visitors from January to May.
In tandem, authorities launched the HK$20 million “Happy Hong Kong” campaign designed to boost Hongkongers’ morale and the city’s economy, as well as “Hello Hong Kong”, a publicity drive that aimed to “[tell] good stories” and entice visitors back to the city, in part by giving away 500,000 plane tickets.
However, the city’s tourism sector has a way to go.
Flagship carrier Cathay Pacific has become the subject of scrutiny following reports of staff shortages, slashed salaries and low morale, as well as a discrimination scandal.
The prevalence of mainland Chinese tourists on “low-cost” tours has also sparked controversy, with residents complaining about crowded streets and bad hygiene, and lawmakers calling for “good quality” tourists instead. Tour operators told HKFP in April it would take more than free flights to attract long-haul tourists to the city.
With the city’s borders reopened, Lee led a delegation to the Middle East in February to “tell the good stories of Hong Kong”, with “fruitful” visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The government hailed the charm offensive as a success, signing 13 letters of intent detailing cooperation on information technology, business, professional services, logistics and other areas. “The Hong Kong government and the Saudi Arabia government have agreed to start our negotiation about protection and promotion of investment agreement,” Lee said.
In May, Lee said that he welcomed “any government officials to come to Hong Kong” to promote business and trade as UK investment minister Dominic Johnson embarked on a three-day Hong Kong trip — the city’s first visit from a UK minister in five years.
In an editorial, Johnson said while the UK would continue to engage with China and Hong Kong where interests aligned, it would “not look the other way on Hong Kong,” whose “high degree of autonomy” he said was “under untold pressure.”
In June, US lawmakers called on Washington not to invite Lee – whom they called a “human rights’ abuser” – to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco in November.
“Because of the Hong Kong government’s violent suppression of peaceful protestors in 2019, inviting Chief Executive Lee to attend the APEC meeting sends a terrible signal to human rights violators worldwide, ” the four US lawmakers said in a co-signed letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
An application for a legal injunction to ban unlawful acts relating to the 2019 protest song Glory to Hong Kong could also have implications for international tech firms operating in the city. A director at US-based consultancy Eurasia Group said in an interview with Bloomberg last month that pressure on tech firms could lead to companies withdrawing services from the market, much like the Google search engine’s exit from mainland China in 2010.
The injunction application came after Google landed in the government’s crosshairs over search results for the term “Hong Kong national anthem.”
Tackling poverty
The city’s economy was hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the poorest households suffering the most. Oxfam Hong Kong said in October that the pandemic had worsened Hong Kong’s wealth gap, with the city’s poorest making 47 times less than its richest residents. “The wealth gap of Hong Kong has reached the tipping point,” director general Kalina Tsang said.
Lee’s Policy Address introduced a mentoring scheme designed to help lift adolescents out of intergenerational poverty by pairing 2,000 underprivileged students with mentors and a HK$10,000 handout last August. By the end of February, 21 students and 16 mentors had withdrawn from the programme.
However, residents from underprivileged groups — including subdivided flat residents, people from low-income households and those experiencing homelessness — said they felt “neglected” by Lee’s address.
Under Lee, the city’s minimum wage has increased to HK$40, marking the first hike after a three-year freeze at HK$37.50. But the Society of Community Organization said the new minimum wage would amount to a monthly salary of about HK$8,320, which was not a living wage. Deputy Director Sze Lai-shan suggested that the minimum wage should be set at HK$53.4.
Housing and development
Most of Lee’s housing and development policies were inherited from his predecessor and former boss Carrie Lam, including the Northern Metropolis and Lantau Tomorrow Vision.
With those long-term plans slated for completion after more than a decade, Lee proposed short-medium term initiatives to curb the city’s housing shortage, including light public housing – modular units designed to last for five years.
The HK$26.4 billion plan to provide 30,000 light housing units was touted as a way to “buy time with money” by lawmakers including Vincent Cheng and Frankie Ngan.
In response to plans to build the first batch of 10,700 light public housing units in Kai Tak, Kowloon Central lawmaker Kitson Yang said in February that the quick housing fix would “completely [block]” Kai Tak residents’ view of the harbour, and cast doubts on whether the government was still intent on transforming the area into a second central business district.
Lawmakers also criticised the cost of the plan, after authorities said in December the construction cost of one unit could exceed the HK$650,000 price tag of a conventional public housing unit.
Housing minister Winnie Ho later said that the cost would range from HK$530,000 for low-rise blocks to HK$650,000 for high-rises – down from the previous HK$550,000 and HK$680,000, respectively. Authorities also said they would look into reusing the units after they were decommissioned.
The government has also forged ahead with a controversial plan to build public housing on a plot of the Fanling golf course. The development, expected to help ease the city’s housing woes by providing an estimated 12,000 flats for 33,600 residents on a nine-hectare plot, has met with opposition not only from the golf club, but from within Lee’s own cabinet.
Executive Council convener Regina Ip – one of the seven non-official Executive Councillors who are members of the golf club – has made repeated calls to scrap the plan, lambasting the government for having “double standards.”
The government has granted the plan conditional approval, but Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn last month said the government might fall short of its goal to build 12,000 flats.
Asked whether the government would press ahead with the planned public housing development last month, Lee appeared hesitant to commit to housing goals, yet eager to assure the city could still host a Saudi Arabia-backed golf tournament.
He said “[the government’s] plan at the moment is to resume the 32-hectare plot in September,” and that the move “would not affect” the venue ability to host large-scale golf tournaments.
Under Lee, though, the waiting time for a public rental housing unit has decreased from 6 years to 5.3.
Authorities say the Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands, slated for completion in 2033, will aim to provide 190,000 to 210,000 residential flats and around 4 million square metres of office space in its commercial district.
But critics doubt whether Kai Tak and Kau Yi Chau, both slated to become new central business districts, would align with a 2018 strategy to provide 70 per cent public housing to 30 per cent private. Greenpeace has also slammed the government for “misleading” the public by claiming the majority of residents supported the islands plan.
The HK$580 billion construction cost has also been a point of controversy. The figure, which has gone up from its previous HK$500 billion price tag, does not take into account inflation, only construction cost indexes, while land sales revenue has has been adjusted downwards from HK$1.143 trillion to HK$750 billion.
National security
Whilst the authorities say the security law has restored stability and peace to the city after the 2019 protests and unrest, the move gave the police sweeping new powers, alarming democrats, civil society groups and trade partners. Most opposition figures are behind bars, in self-exile abroad, or have quit politics, whilst sensitive books have been pulled from libraries, newsrooms have been raided and dozens of civil society groups has disbanded.
Four months into his tenure, Lee invited the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress – China’s top legislative body – to interpret the national security law, regarding whether overseas barristers not qualified to practise in Hong Kong could participate in national security cases.
The NPCSC’s intervention effectively granted Lee, along with the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, the authority to make such decisions. According to a statement, the interpretation stipulates: “The courts of the HKSAR shall request and obtain a certificate from the Chief Executive to certify whether an act involves national security or whether the relevant evidence involves State secrets when such questions arise in the adjudication of a case.”
The debate on whether overseas counsels could participate in national security cases arose after media tycoon Jimmy Lai sought to hire King’s Counsel Timothy Owen to represent him in a national security trial.
Lee also unveiled plans to overhaul the District Council elections in May, to ensure only “patriots” could run, after a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019. According to the proposal, the number of seats elected by the public will be slashed to around 20 per cent, with the rest chosen by the city’s leader and government-appointed committees.
Constituency boundaries would also be redrawn and each local council will be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates would be subject to national security vetting to ensure patriotism.
After the 2019 election, then-leader Carrie Lam said that the government respected the 2019 election results. But in May, Lee said some of those elected to the 2019 District Council had a platform for advocating “black riots, Hong Kong independence and mutual destruction.”
On June 23, Lee said Article 23 of the Basic Law – Hong Kong’s own security legislation – would “definitely” be enacted within this year, or next year at the latest. Article 23 stipulates that the Hong Kong government shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the central government.
Lee said the city was examining the security laws of other jurisdictions, which were “strict” because “everybody knows their enemies are highly skilled.” Asked if he believed Hong Kong had changed, he said the city was “setting things right” after what he called two years of “black riots.”
The legislation of Article 23 failed in 2003 following mass protests. The government has always had enough votes to pass the law, but it has never been raised since the 2003 debacle. Pro-democracy advocates fear it could have a negative effect on civil liberties.
Press freedom
In what was hailed as a rare victory for press freedom, journalist Bao Choy had her conviction for making false statements linked to a documentary she made on a mob attack in Yuen Long in 2019 overturned by the city’s top court in June. However, in an interview with HKFP she warned that the “damage [to the media industry] has already been done.”
Hong Kong effectively barred several independent newspapers, international media outlets, and news wires from attending Lee’s inauguration last July. Among those who did not receive an invite were Japan’s Nikkei, Asahi Shimbun, and Kyodo News, Taiwan’s CTV, Getty Images in the US, as well as Hong Kong’s InMedia, PSHK, TMHK and the European Pressphoto Agency also did not receive an invite. HKFP also did not receive an invite.
Lee said in November that press freedom was “in the pocket of the people of Hong Kong,” and that it was protected in the Basic Law.
“What is important is, whatever profession you are in, you must go about your duties in accordance with the law. You cannot go beyond the law, and nobody is above the law. And provided it is within the confine of the law, press freedom is fully protected in Hong Kong,” he said.
However, a satirical comic strip by Hong Kong’s most prominent political cartoonist Wong Kei-kwan — better known by his pen name Zunzi — published by Ming Pao was axed in mid-May. The cartoonist had contributed to the newspaper for more than 40 years.
The suspension came after Hong Kong authorities criticised Zunzi’s work six times since October 2022. Public libraries swiftly removed Zunzi’s books from their shelves following Ming Pao’s termination of the comic strip.
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