Hong Kong’s leader has pledged to enhance the city’s governance system in public security and safety and to carry out systemic reform following the deadly Tai Po fire, describing it as a key task in safeguarding national security. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s remarks came after Xia Baolong, Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong affairs, said people with “ulterior mot...

Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs has urged businesspeople to serve as the “main force” driving the city’s economic development by investing in innovation and the Northern Metropolis project, calling on them to demonstrate their patriotism through “concrete actions”. Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, also argued that people with “ulterior mo...

A statutory advisory body in Hong Kong will be given new powers as early as June to investigate government department heads over “serious, widespread or systemic” problems, as part of a broader push to institutionalise official accountability. The subsidiary legislation drafted by the Civil Service Bureau, which was submitted to the Legislative Council on Tuesday, sought to gran...

More than 10,000 posts in the Hong Kong government will be cut by the end of Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s current term in June 2027, with close to 60 per cent of these deletions being junior roles and about 3 per cent at the senior level. Civil service minister Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan said on Monday the move was not “fattening the top but thinning the bottom” and was reaso...

When the unthinkable becomes normal, stability becomes the new premium – and Hong Kong is well positioned. The world we thought we understood even two years ago no longer exists. We are living through a period of disruption that, until recently, would have seemed unthinkable. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the US-Israel war against Iran are reshaping long-held assumptions abou...