Beijing’s message to HK: Get your act together

Even Chinese Premier Li Qiang raised the issue for the first time in his annual work report. Read more at straitstimes.com.

HONG KONG – Beijing is turning up the heat on Hong Kong’s government to put its house in order.

Several top officials at China’s ongoing Two Sessions have stressed that Hong Kong needs to improve its governance and efficiency, with even Premier Li Qiang raising the issue for the first time in his annual work report.

“We will see that Hong Kong (is)… more effectively governed in accordance with the law,” Premier Li said on March 5, at the opening of the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC), or Parliament, held concurrently with those of top political advisers, which together are known as the Two Sessions.

On the same day, Mr Zhou Ji, director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, urged the city to “focus its efforts on managing its own affairs well”.

The next day, Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang tasked Hong Kong’s legislature to “more proactively” help improve the city’s governance system “to yield more practical results that are in line with Hong Kong’s actual situation and the central government’s requirements”.

Even a day before the opening of the Two Sessions in Beijing, Mr Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, was already pressing the point.