Written by | Xue Li Dong Xin
On August 4, Carrie Lam, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, uploaded two videos on social media about her conversation with The First President of the SAR's Legislative Council, Fan Xu Litai.
"The epidemic, the postponement of the election, the 'vacuum period' of the Legislative Council, etc. are all the most concerned issues for the public in recent days, and today I invited Ms. Fan XuLitai, the first president of the Legislative Council of the SAR, to the Protocol House to exchange views on the above issues."
Carrie Lam explained on social media that she invited Fan Xulitai to the Concierge's House.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > a rare guest of the Concierge House in the past six months</h1>
Fan Xu Litai is a rare guest of the Protocol House in the past six months.
The Hong Kong House of Protocol is the official residence of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and an important official reception place. After the return of Hong Kong to The Motherland, successive Chief Executives will hold Chinese New Year receptions, award ceremonies and other important events at the House of Protocol.
In addition, to promote Hong Kong's ties with home and abroad, as well as to support Hong Kong's hosting of large-scale international conferences and public welfare activities, The House of Protocol is also often used as an event venue.
Carrie Lam was the first female host of the century-old Protocol House, and after she took office, mainland officials and experts visiting Hong Kong, scholars, representatives of mainland R&D institutions, and presidents of local universities in Hong Kong were regular guests of the Government House.
However, since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic this year, Zheng knows (WeChat ID: upolitics) has rarely seen information about Carrie Lam's hospitality and meetings at the Concierge's House.
In a video posted by Carrie Lam, she sits face to face with Fan Xulitai. Formally, it is more like a talk SHOW than a formal meeting; in terms of content, the communication between the two is also very open and honest.
Zheng Zhi (WeChat ID: upolitics) has seen many of Carrie Lam's press conferences, media interviews, and news reports of her meetings with different personalities, and this is the first time I have seen it in this way.
Fan Xu Litai, real name Xu Litai, is a Hong Kong establishment politician. She is a former member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the first President of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the current deputy to the National People's Congress and a member of the Standing Committee of the Hong Kong Sarcotta People's Congress.
During the exchange, Carrie Lam also mentioned that as early as 1983-1984, when she was an assistant parliamentary commissioner in Sai Kung, she had received Fan Xu Li Tai, a legislator who had come to inspect the environmental sanitation of Sai Kung typhoon shelters. Since then, she has had great respect for Fan Xulitai.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "politics cannot take precedence over life."</h1>
Of course, Mrs Lam invited the first president of the SAR Legislative Council to the House of Protocol, for the purpose of not just reminiscing about the past.
Legislative Council elections are an important topic.
The 7th Legislative Council elections of the HKSAR, which were supposed to be held on 6 September this year, will be 35 MPs each from local constituencies and functional constituencies, for a total of 70 members.
On 31 July, Carrie Lam announced that in order to safeguard public safety and the health of Hong Kong citizens, she and the Executive Council, citing the Emergency Regulations Ordinance (Emergency Law), decided to postpone the election of the Seventh Legislative Council of the HKSAR by one year, based on the public interest and the actual situation in Hong Kong.
"Postponing the Legislative Council election is a difficult decision." In a discussion with Fan Xulitai, Carrie Lam said.
Mrs Lam said the chairman of the Election Management Committee sent her a letter detailing the risks of holding the Legislative Council elections as scheduled, including the expected millions of voters to vote, the difficulty of maintaining social distancing, and the risk of infection for voters, polling station workers and others. If she insists on going her own way, she will not be blamed for what happened.
Fan XuLitai expressed support for the decision to postpone the Legislative Council election.
She said that hong Kong has recently had more than 100 new cases of new coronary pneumonia in a single day, and many citizens are very worried. Under such circumstances, if the elections continue as scheduled, no one in Hong Kong will be able to shoulder this responsibility once more people are infected with the new crown virus.
"Politics cannot take precedence over life." Fan Xulitai said.
An important issue is that during the one-year period of postponement of the election, there will be a "vacuum" in Hong Kong's legislative council.
Recently, some Hong Kong opposition figures have ignored the provisions of the Constitution and the Basic Law, misled the public and even falsely claimed that normal elections would not be possible after the postponement, and some foreign politicians threatened that Hong Kong people might never be able to vote.
The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council has indicated that the NPC Standing Committee will make a decision as soon as possible on the issue of vacancies in the legislature caused by the postponement of the Legislative Council election.
In her exchanges with Carrie Lam, Fan also expressed her belief that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress can deal with related issues in a better way that more Hong Kong citizens can understand.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > to correct the chaos and clear the source</h1>
In addition to the Legislative Council, Carrie Lam and Fan XuLitai also talked about education.
Previously, at the two sessions of the National People's Congress, Zheng Zhi (WeChat ID: upolitics) had conducted an exclusive interview with Fan Xulitai. In the interview, she revealed that in view of the current situation of Insufficient Chinese history education in Hong Kong, she has established the Reed Education Center in Hong Kong since 2016, and she herself served as the chairman of the board.
In an interview at the time, Fan told Zheng Zhijun that after more than two decades of educational reform in Hong Kong, Chinese history has become an underappreciated subject.
On July 14 this year, at the opening ceremony and summit forum of the Fifth "One Country, Two Systems" and basic law forum, Fan Xulitai mentioned in her speech that the Hong Kong National Security Law is like glue, gluing together cracked places.
"But our biggest problem is not the cracked place, but our own heart, our young people are misled and brainwashed, this situation must change." 」 She said.
How can this change? Education is key.
During the August 3 talks, Carrie Lam revealed to Fan Xulitai that the direction of her work in education in the next two years is to correct the chaos and clean up the source.
Carrie Lam believes that many things need to be made clear in education. For example, "one country, two systems" and "one country" are fundamental and bottom-line, and if even "one country" is not maintained or loyal, it is difficult to talk about other things. Similarly, the education and publicity of the "Hong Kong National Security Law" and the National Anthem Law must first start with the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the relationship between the Constitution and the Basic Law.
Carrie Lam also confirmed that Fan Xulitai also contributed to the Hong Kong government's efforts to improve education. She thanked Fan Xulitai for helping to design the content related to teacher training, and hoped that the two could have more cooperation in education in the future.
It is worth noting that Carrie Lam also mentioned that there are many very good talents in the Education Sector in Hong Kong, and hopes that the future teacher team will have better development.
Information | Xinhua News Agency, Global Network, Bauhinia and so on