JANUARY 2008, NUMBER NINE
Hong Kong’s 2007 Elections and What They Mean
By Michael DeGolyer
Hong Kong will choose a new Legislative Council this year, a contest that will test mass support for a more democratic political system, writes Michael DeGolyer, Professor of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. He argues that last year’s voting proves that strong backing for a more representative system remains as strong as ever.
By Leung Chun-ying
Although Hong Kong residents should welcome an expanded American economic role in their city, they shouldn’t ask the U.S. to exert influence on Beijing to bring about policy changes there, says Leung Chun-ying, chairman of a leading property services company and convenor of Hong Kong’s Executive Council, its cabinet. It should set an example for the mainland to copy, not be an instigator of outside pressure, he writes.
By Bernard Chan
Along with new prosperity, the decade since China regained sovereignty over Hong Kong has brought some unexpected changes—for both better and worse, writes Bernard Chan, president of the Asia Financial Group and a member of both Hong Kong’s Executive Council and its Legislative Council. These include a widening rich-poor gap, drug abuse, more cross-border marriages and pollution.
By James D. Seymour
Hong Kong’s political structure, which gives special interest groups a major policy role, makes it difficult for the territory to have an effective anti-pollution program, writes James D. Seymour, honorary senior research fellow at the Universities Service Center at Chinese University. He describes this and other structural issues that impede good policies, and offers five possible improvements.
By Thomas E. Kellogg
Article 158 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s de facto constitution, gives China’s National People’s Congress the right to review and overturn court decisions in the HKSAR, writes Thomas E. Kellogg of Yale University’s China Law Center. Beijing could have used this power to improve the quality of its legal decision-making system, but so far has failed to do so.
By Raymond Yim Chun-man
In a city where the profit motive is supreme, enterprises that try to meet social obligations have great difficulty in keeping good managers, writes Raymond Yim Chun-man, CEO of a business consulting firm and an official of non-goverment organizations affiliated with the Methodist Church and the University of Hong Kong. He describes the special problems faced by NGOs and offers some possible solutions.
Current Articles
Hong Kong’s 2007 Elections and What They Mean
Analysts forgivably could be confused by the three Hong Kong elections of 2007...
The U.S. Role in Hong Kong: More Economics than Politics
In November, Martin Lee, a Hong Kong Legislative Council member and the founding chairman of the Democratic Party, wrote in an article...
Post 1997 Hong Kong: The Environmental and Social Impact
As with politics and the economy, pre-1997 expectations have not matched post-1997 realities...
Structual Impediments to Environmental Justice
Why has the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region done so little to protect the environment?...
Excessive Deference or Strategic Retreat? The Impact of Basic Law Article 158
As the tenth anniversary of the Hong Kong handover has come and gone, a number of scholars, lawyers, and politicians have taken stock of constitutional development in the SAR over the past decade...
The Management Challenges Facing Social Enterprises
In Hong Kong, profit often seems to be king...
