This year marks the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. The experience of history deserves attention. On January 21, 2022, the author published "National Sovereignty Encounters the First Challenge!" As the opening paragraph, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal will publish a series of articles and videos to review with you the major challenges and tests experienced by Hong Kong in practicing "one country, two systems" over the past 25 years, so as to understand the difficulties to be overcome at present and for some time to come, and the historical responsibility of the patriotic and Hong Kong camp.
In 2019, when the United States and Britain launched the "Black Riot", the shops that loved the country and Hong Kong were not only destroyed by the rioters, but also suffered from the remnants of the British in the relevant departments of the SAR government. For example, the rioters complained to the relevant government departments by phone, fabricating that the health facilities of the patriotic and Hong Kong-loving shops were lacking, and some people from the relevant government departments immediately rushed to be picky, making it difficult for the shops to operate normally.
People do not understand why there are officials in the relevant departments of the SAR Government who support anti-China and chaotic Political Groups in Hong Kong. It is easy to understand the nature of the civil service system of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The civil servants who joined the company before their return on 1 July 1997 are currently in leading positions in various departments and departments of the HKSAR Government. It cannot be said that these people are not patriotic and love Hong Kong, but there are indeed remnants of Britain among them.
The last Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, delivered his last Policy Address in October 1996, in which he proudly declared that the British had left Hong Kong a proud civil service. Hong Kong's civil service was cultivated by London, forming a strict hierarchy and loyalty to the British Empire.
On 1 July 1997, the principal officials of the first Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were only replaced by the Secretary for Justice, and the others were all former Members of the British Government in Hong Kong, and continued their original posts.
This arrangement for a smooth transition is based on the major premise of the Chinese Government's resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. However, the British were not willing to accept Hong Kong's return to China, and took advantage of this arrangement to direct the people and horses installed in the civil service ranks of the SAR Government to obstruct, interfere with, and undermine the central authorities' exercise of constitutional power and responsibility over the SAR, and obstruct, interfere with, and undermine the chief executive's implementation of "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law.
In early July 1998, then-US President Bill Clinton visited Hong Kong. He asked Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, how many people do you bring into the SAR government? Tung Chee-hwa held out 3 fingers. Clinton guessed, 300 people. Tung Chee-hwa replied that there were 3 people, one was his personal secretary, one was his assistant, and one was his driver. Clinton was surprised.
There is a story circulating in Hong Kong that the Chief Secretary for Administration of the first GOVERNMENT, Mr. Anson Chan, sent an internal email to civil servants asking them to obtain her approval before carrying out the instructions of the Chief Executive. Chen Fang'ansheng voluntarily resigned when his first government was still in office for about half a year. The main reason for her resignation was to oppose Tung Chee-hwa's trial of senior official accountability in the second government. The so-called "different ways do not conspire."
After Tung Chee-hwa was re-elected as the second chief executive in 2002, he deeply felt that the management team must have its own people and can no longer be constrained by others. In the second government, he experimented with the accountability system of senior officials, changed the stereotype of promoting the secretary-general from a senior administrative officer under the traditional civil service system, and recruited the social elite to serve as the director of the department, and the term of office was consistent with the term of office of the chief executive. Although Tung Chee-hwa retained some of the positions among the main officials of the second government to be filled by people with civil service backgrounds, such reforms were, after all, the "cheese" that moved the highest-ranking civil servants. As a result, a group of senior civil servants jointly issued an open letter expressing opposition.
Until 2017, 15 years after the implementation of the political accountability system for senior officials, spanning the second, third and fourth governments, a key leader from the civil service in Hong Kong still said that he did not agree with the accountability of senior officials, but given that the system has been in place for more than a decade, it can only continue.
Fish begins to rot from the head. The leaders are nostalgic for the traditional civil service system, and it is no wonder that the British remnants in the government department support the "black riots" and make it difficult for the patriotic and Hong Kong shops.
Today, to consolidate and promote the "patriots governing Hong Kong," it is necessary to reform the traditional civil service system.