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Natalie Wong

Andrew Fung Ho-keung recalls the “golden days” for Hong Kong’s think tanks.
He said there was a time when the work of his Hong Kong Policy Research Institute, one of the city’s oldest think tanks, could significantly shape policymaking.
In 2018, during a months-long government-led debate on land and housing supply initiated by then leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the think tank published research reports and organised forums pushing for innovative ideas.
The government later adopted one proposal, a land readjustment scheme, and integrated it into the Land Sharing Pilot Scheme, said Fung, director and honorary CEO of the think tank, established in 1995.
“Carrie Lam, in a seminar, publicly endorsed our innovative contribution to the policy. Those were the golden days of think tanks,” he said.
But over time, the institute’s workforce dwindled from more than 10 full-time workers to about two employees, primarily because of a decline in donations and funds.
“We can’t afford full-time researchers to conduct in-house research regularly,” Fung said.
The last policy paper it released to the public was back in November 2020 and focused on civil service systems, discipline and oath-taking requirements.

The think tank now survives by conducting limited on-demand research commissioned by government departments and commercial entities, through a network of freelance researchers and advisers. Its findings often remain publicly unpublished, limiting their impact on discourse in society.
Hong Kong’s once vibrant think tank ecosystem has fallen into what some in the sector are calling a “dark winter”. Many think tanks are struggling to survive or maintain any influence, with the city’s economic downturn and political changes seen as reducing society’s demands for policy advocacy.
The Post spoke to researchers, donors and government insiders who administer funds for public policy studies. Some warned that reduced innovation had led to shortsighted policies while others believed a few think tanks could remain relevant as long as they reinvented themselves and supported the city’s ambitions for reforms amid evolving geopolitics.
Less funding, fewer researchers
Think tanks in Hong Kong began to emerge around 1997 when the city returned from British to Chinese sovereignty, and included pro-Beijing and pan-democratic entities, as well as those affiliated with academic institutions.
The number has shrunk, from a high of about 40 to 30 now, excluding dozens of university-affiliated research centres.
The closure last month of MWYO, a youth-oriented think tank established nine years ago by Lau Ming-wai, a second-generation tycoon, sparked concern.
Known for innovative public opinion projects, including participatory budgeting for a public housing estate, MWYO had more than 20 full-time staff at its peak, according to a researcher who spent four years at the think tank.
He suggested its demise was linked to Lau having less focus on youth policies after he stepped down as vice-chairman of the government’s Youth Development Commission.
Another prominent think tank, the Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, set up by Norman Chan Tak-lam, a close aide of former city leader Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, was dissolved in 2022.
Some think tanks affiliated with the opposition camp either closed or became inactive after Beijing’s imposition of the national security law in the city.
Those that remained faced funding and manpower challenges, insiders said. Perhaps most tellingly, half of the surviving think tanks have not published any public policy papers online in the past year, the Post has found.


A review of the websites of all local think tanks found that only Civic Exchange publicly discloses its funding status online.
According to its 2023 annual report, it received HK$2.8 million in funding, a staggering 48 per cent decline from HK$5.4 million in 2018. Its funding in 2023 fell by 7 per cent from the previous year’s HK$3 million.
Nearly 90 per cent of its funding in 2023 was from private foundations and companies, and the rest from the government. In one of its most notable investigations, it received HK$3 million in public funds some years ago for a report on the potential of hydrogen as a fuel for the transport sector.
Our Hong Kong Foundation, established a decade ago by former leader Tung Chee-hwa and one of the city’s largest think tanks, scaled back operations in recent years due to shrinking donations from the private sector in the downturn, an insider said.
“Tung’s ailing health also affected the think tank’s ability to appeal for donations from the private sector,” he said.
Among the 51 individual and corporate benefactors listed in its latest annual report, at least 10 were real estate firms.
No ‘challengers’ to be seen
Beijing’s overhaul of the electoral system in 2021 had also contributed to the declining influence of the think tanks, sector leaders said.
Kay Lam Chi-yan, a former senior researcher at the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute, said without opposition groups in the recent election cycle, the role of think tanks in analysing public sentiment had diminished.
“With little competition, political parties no longer need in-depth, comprehensive policy research to win votes,” she said, noting that more rural committees or satellite pro-Beijing groups had been beating think tanks to get commissioned research projects.
Lam, who left the think tank after six years and started a consultancy, said that having fewer public consultations also mattered and that a lack of bottom-up policymaking had stifled discussions about policies.

Meanwhile, a developer, speaking anonymously, said he had “drastically” cut his donations to the sector in the past two years, fearing he would be “perceived by Beijing as a challenger”.
“Is running a discourse to advocate for policies that diverge from government directions through think tanks becoming risky? I can’t say for certain,” the tycoon said.
“Amid the economic uncertainties, it’s wiser to spend on areas that are seen as making constructive contributions to society.”
‘Providing solutions to problems’
More than a decade after Beijing announced strategies to build “new-type think tanks with Chinese characteristics” in 2013, thousands of institutes have emerged on the mainland.
Locally, the sector had anticipated that Beijing would give a bigger push to further development of the industry on the mainland and in Hong Kong, as the central government had placed a greater emphasis on investigation and research.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, in his election platform in 2022, vowed to “utilise think tanks’ research capabilities, build a quality, diverse ecosystems for think tanks, and enhance policy research vitality”.
But industry leaders, pointing to a lack of government support, said disillusionment permeated the sector.
Some warned that the sector’s decline had reduced innovation and resulted in shortsighted policy, while hindering the nurturing of young talent.
“We provide solutions to problems, host events to enhance awareness and advocate for certain social issues. These functions cannot be replaced by academic institutions or political parties,” Fung said.
Lawmaker Chow Man-kong, an academic specialising in public policy and economic development, highlighted the importance of a vibrant think tank community.
“Academic institutions approach policies differently, as they have to fulfil the requirement of publishing quality papers,” he said.
“The research is not necessarily highly relevant to society and has sector influence.”
Ian Chan Yu-yan, a governor of the Path of Democracy think tank, previously took part in the compilation of its flagship “One Country, Two Systems Index” as a researcher from 2019 to 2021.
He said he later left because of concerns over financial security and career advancement opportunities.
“Also, the small size of local think tanks limits time for in-depth research … Personally, I prefer technical research over events and administration,” said Chan, who now works as an economist for the government.
Path of Democracy founder Ronny Tong Ka-wah said the think tank now employed two to three in-house researchers. The current government rarely publicly endorsed the work of think tanks, exacerbating their difficulties in appealing for donations to conduct policy studies, added Tong, a member of the city’s top decision-making body the Executive Council.
“The first question we often face from donors is: what will the research be used for?” he said. “It’s difficult for us to convey that the government takes our views into account.”
Tong’s think tank is among three to be awarded research grants under the current government. In 2023-24, it received HK$700,000 for a study on international business attitudes towards Hong Kong.
Bias towards universities?
The government has two funding schemes for supporting public policy research. A review by the Post of the 601 approved projects listed online since 2013 revealed that only 19, or 3.2 per cent, were granted to six think tanks, and the remaining were awarded to universities.
A senior source in the Chief Executive’s Policy Unit, which oversees the two schemes, said it spent around HK$20 million annually.
Projects are vetted by more than 20 scholars and overseas experts every quarter, with input from relevant policy bureaus.




The insider stressed that there was no bias towards tertiary institutions for grants. He said the success rate for think tanks stood at around 28 per cent, higher than 19 per cent for academic institutions.
He said heavyweight scholars from academic institutions, serving as leaders of projects, often performed better in convincing the vetting panel of their ability to deliver high-quality, scientifically rigorous research.
The insider disagreed with some suggestions, such as adopting an annual grant system similar to that of the Arts Development Council, which allows select distinguished art groups to receive lump sums to maintain their operations.
“If we award projects to think tanks simply because they are a minority in need of support, this is not impartial,” the source said.
“Our policy adjective should be to ensure that funding supports quality research rather than specific institutions.”
Responding to criticism that the government did not sufficiently acknowledge the work of think tanks, the insider said policies were “rarely formed from ideas of one institution”.
“Very often, many contributors are involved. We must be careful in endorsing a particular think tank,” he said.
“And sometimes, government endorsement can be detrimental these days. Some who don’t trust the government have a bad impression of government-approved think tanks.”
He said the unit recently adopted a new approach by allowing approved lead investigators to engage with government advisers and officials in the early stages of their research.
Different landscape
Lau Siu-kai, a consultant with the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies think tank, said the sector had undergone a transition when the city moved away from being a “political battlefield” as Beijing rooted out opposition.
He said there remained areas with significant potential and an urgent need for expertise in quality research, especially in the context of evolving and complex international relations.
Hoping to capitalise in that area, international relations scholar Wilson Chan Wai-shun and economics scholar Kevin Tsui Ka-kin recently co-founded the Pagoda Institute, a think tank focusing on geopolitics and economic analysis.
Chan said he hoped their incomes from other avenues could sustain the think tank’s operations.
“The landscape that Hong Kong is navigating today – encompassing mainland China, Europe and the US – is vastly different from what it was 20 years ago,” he said.
“We hope to move beyond a domestic research approach and adopt a more macro perspective, examining how Hong Kong can better mitigate risks.”
Path of Democracy’s Tong said his group recently had a discussion internally on whether to suspend the One Country, Two System Index study, which was published twice a year since 2017, because of the decline in funds and lack of sponsors.
He said the group decided to press on, believing that society still needed “constructive advocacy” especially when an administration prioritised reforms.
“Hong Kong think tanks are never on an easy path. We believe we still have room as reforms are emphasised by the central and Hong Kong governments,” he said.
“So we need lots of ideas, new data theories to have better policy delivery to pursue high-quality growth. I still believe there is a way out.”


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Hong Kong politics

Why are Hong Kong think tanks facing a bleak future?

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

Carrie Lam endorsed a think tank’s contribution at a seminar. Photo: Nora Tam

Kay Lam says the role of think tanks in analysing public sentiment has diminished. Photo: David Wong

Our Hong Kong Foundation vows to mend ‘huge reputation damage’ to city amid US-China rift

A Hong Kong think tank is working to build bridges in response to the city’s earlier political upheaval. Photo: Sam Tsang

Bernard Chan, chairman of Our Hong Kong Foundation, has said geopolitical tensions have contributed to the “massive departures” from Hong Kong of US companies or those with American interests. Photo: Dickson Lee

Global perceptions of Hong Kong have shifted since Beijing imposed a national security law following months of anti-government protests in 2019. Photo: Sam Tsang

One-stop app, more focus on harbour: leading Hong Kong think tank unveils broad plan to sharpen city’s tourism edge

Pharrell Williams (centre), the men’s creative director of Louis Vuitton, attends the brand’s fashion show in Tsim Sha Tsui last November. A think tank is calling on authorities to make better use of the harbour. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong hosts a fireworks display over Lunar New Year on February 11. The city last year welcomed 34 million visitors, 17 million of whom stayed overnight. Photo: Eugene Lee

Hong Kong needs office overseeing planning for mega events, think tank says

The Victoria Park Tennis Stadium. Our Hong Kong Foundation has called for an office dedicated to overseeing planning for mega events. Photo: Dickson Lee

Lawmaker Kenneth Fok vice-president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, has said many major sporting events now pay attention to presentation alongside competition. Photo: Edmond So

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City’s once vibrant think tank scene has entered what some are calling a ‘dark winter’


City’s once vibrant think tank scene has entered what some are calling a ‘dark winter’.
