Hong Kong’s new lawmakers are mostly affluent homeowners, with property in mainland China and overseas. How well can they represent ordinary residents?
- Assets declaration shows 69 out of 90 legislators are property owners, nearly half with mainland investments
- Not-so-diverse Legco raises questions about members’ ability to reflect views of Hongkongers
Four in five newly elected lawmakers in Hong Kong are property owners, a proportion significantly higher than the city’s average and that of the previous Legislative Council, the Post has found.
Nearly half the owners had homes, investment property or land in mainland China, and some had multiple properties.
A check of the 90 lawmakers’ declared assets showed a rural leader with shares in more than 100 companies, while two political novices who described themselves as a teacher and an engineer on their election platforms declared paid jobs they did not disclose earlier.
Chung Kim-wah, deputy CEO of the city’s leading survey group, the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, said the new Legco appeared to be filled with well-off individuals and less diverse than the previous legislature, which included opposition politicians.
He said: “When a legislature is stacked with members with high socioeconomic status, can it accurately reflect the views of the public to the government?”
The assets of many lawmakers were not known to the public until last week, when they had to declare what they and their spouses owned to the Legco secretariat.
The information was made available on the Legco website after its first meeting on Wednesday, and included ownership of residential and commercial property, land and shares. Lawmakers also had to declare any work done that they were being paid for.
