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Opinion | Government efficiency is good but Hong Kong people’s concerns must not be ignored
- Xia Baolong’s visit is a taste of how Beijing-Hong Kong politics will work, with greater stability and efficiency
- But to build faith in government, there must be more assurance that people’s voices are heard and given due consideration
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Ordinary Hong Kong residents were mostly relegated to the political peripheral in the high-profile visit by Xia Baolong, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and former vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. This was a little unfortunate.
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During his visit, Xia met what the government press office called “district personalities” and enjoyed yum cha in Kowloon Bay. He also chatted with senior citizens during a tour of an elderly community centre.
For the most part of his six-day visit, however, the public mainly saw him being schlepped from one place to another. These meetings seemed very insightful and informative – it is only unfortunate that not all of us were deemed privileged enough to hear for themselves what the director had to say.
Judging from the accounts of the meetings and visits, Xia focused on many important issues, revealed quite a lot of what he thought and conveyed very clear messages. For some, they sounded like directives spelling out Beijing’s expectations.
For members of the Legislative Council, they know they are expected to “support the government in achieving effective administration”, as one report put it. For one, they are to refrain from attention-seeking. They were also told that protests were not the only way to convey a message or express a public grievance. Right on cue, the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions withdrew its application to march on Labour Day.
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The federation, of course, denies that its decision had anything to do with Xia’s remarks. Perhaps that shouldn’t be our focus.
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