Advertisement
Opinion | If John Lee wants to improve communication with the mainland, he should look beyond Beijing
- Past administrations have taken ‘communicating with the mainland’ to mean only liaising with the central government
- But regional governments can also affect Hong Kong in profound and unexpected ways, and the new administration must learn to confer with provincial officials too
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
As John Lee Ka-chiu’s inauguration as Hong Kong’s fifth chief executive nears, I have been thinking back on the successes and failures of past administrations. One thing I hope the new administration can do better is communicate with mainland China.
Advertisement
The political discourse in Hong Kong often blurs the distinction between “mainland China” and “Beijing”. After all, the Basic Law, which provides our constitutional framework, talks mostly about Hong Kong’s relationship with the central government.
But one should not forget that there are also numerous regional governments in China, all of which can affect Hong Kong in profound and unexpected ways. Learning to communicate with all of them will do immense good for Hong Kong.
Consider what happened when we tried to reopen the border with Guangdong last year. Starting around July 1, Beijing’s liaison office launched a series of “listening tours” to visit the grass roots in Hong Kong and respond to their hardships. They concluded that reopening the border was top priority.
Eventually, a date was set for December 17. Lee himself, then chief secretary, visited Shenzhen to iron out the final details with mainland counterparts. In fact, things were going so well that the start date was even brought forward to December 3. Talk about generating expectations.
Advertisement
But the reopening never happened. Throughout the ordeal, people wondered what was wrong. On December 29, the Post was still reporting that “Beijing [was] reluctant to give the green light”. However, it made no sense to me that the central government should be the reason for the hold-up.
Advertisement