With national security done and dusted, let’s remake Hong Kong next
- Xia Baolong, the top official on Hong Kong affairs, is daring the city to say and do new things. The central government is expecting no less than courage from the city’s leadership
Still, now that both Beijing’s national security law for Hong Kong and the city’s Safeguarding National Security Ordinance are in place, the bulk of the remaining work should be done by law enforcement and other relevant agencies. After all, security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung has stressed that the legislation focuses on a small group of individuals.
So the rest of us should get on with tackling the city’s other problems.
“We cannot look at today’s new situation with yesterday’s old eyes. We cannot use yesterday’s old thinking to solve today’s new problems,” he said.
Are people going there for the services, the prices, the offerings or some combination of these? Rather than ask people to stay put, Hong Kong needs to become more competitive. The government should find out what hurdles local businesses face – labour shortages, rental costs etc – and play its part.
Xia was also very clear about the need for Hong Kong to innovate, even when it comes to our traditional advantages.
But Xia reminded us that there can be no resting on our laurels – constant effort needs to go into maintaining our success.
For Hong Kong to get back on top, it is not so much a matter of checking off key performance indicators as leading with knowledge, diligence and innovative spirit.
We have no choice but to accept change and make new wine in new bottles. Xia’s challenge to Hong Kong is to “dare to say new things that have not been said by our predecessors and dare to do things that have never been done before”. This city should no longer be relying on Beijing to come to our rescue or spoon-feed us with solutions.
Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA