Facing up to aspirations of people participating in 1 July march (2017/06/28)

 

MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): President, the title of this motion debate is "Facing up to the aspirations of the people participating in the 1 July march". The wording gives us the impression that the Member proposing the motion lays all the blame of the problems arising from the governance of Hong Kong on the implementation of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong being severely shaken, distorted and deformed. He is totally making an issue of the subject. Hence, I will not support the original motion.

During the Sino-British negotiation over Hong Kong's sovereignty, in order to put the minds of Hong Kong people and overseas investors at ease, the Central Government agreed to implement "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong despite having no precedents in the world. This means that Hong Kong is to practise the capitalist system within a socialist country. It is a pioneering undertaking.

In the two decades after the reunification, Hong Kong has remained prosperous and stable and "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong", "a high degree of autonomy" and "one country, two systems" have been implemented successfully. Because of that, many scholars of constitutional law have studied the Hong Kong model and compared it with many autonomous regions in the world. Their conclusion is that Hong Kong enjoys a higher degree of autonomy than other autonomous regions in many aspects. That isquite uncommon. Hong Kong can formulate its own financial policy, it does not need to hand over any revenue to the Central Government, and can have its own financial and monetary system. The SAR Government can formulate its own immigration and customs policies. It may, using the name "Hong Kong, China", maintain and develop relations, conclude and implement bilateral agreements with any places in the world and relevant international organizations in various areas, including economic, trade, finance, shipping, communications, tourism, culture and sports. The Legislative Council of the SAR has the power to enact local laws. Hong Kong continues to uphold the common law system and enjoys the right of final appeal. To prevent "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and "a high degree of autonomy" from becoming a superficial slogan, many autonomous powers have been written into the Basic Law and are protected by law. This indicates that the Central Government is determined and relieved to let Hong Kong people manage their internal affairs, and such attitudes have never been wavered over the past two decades.

President, when the idea of "one country, two systems" was first raised, many people did have great doubts and many emigrated to other countries. However, everyone has witnessed Hong Kong's achievements in these 20 years. Even though we had been hit by the Asian financial turmoil, the SARS epidemic and international financial crises, we were able to overcome the crises and came out of the impasse. Our unemployment rate has remained below 4%, practically the level of full employment, for many years in a row. The Government continues to record a yearly financial surplus and our fiscal reserve has almost reached HK$1,000 billion. The overall economy also continues to grow.

Overall speaking, Hong Kong's performance can outpace most major economies in many aspects and its achievements have also been recognized by the international community. According to its recent report, the international rating agency Standard & Poor's has maintained its highest AAA credit rating for Hong Kong. According to Standard and Poor's, "one country, two systems" still holds in Hong Kong in various aspects such as the economy, finance and the Government's governance, and many policies enjoy "a high degree of autonomy". Moreover, according to the ratings conducted by many internationally renowned rating agencies, Hong Kong is still the most competitive and freest economy in the world and the most robust city in Asia. Hong Kong has been crowned as the world's most competitive economy for the second consecutive year, according to World Competitiveness Yearbook 2017 complied by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development. The World Heritage Foundation in the United States also ranks Hong Kong as the world's freest economy for the 23rd consecutive year. Many Hong Kong people having emigrated overseas have come back. As such, how can such remarks as "one country, two systems" being distorted and deformed hold water?

In the course of development, Hong Kong is indeed faced with many complicated issues in respect of people's livelihood, the economy and society in various social strata. It is a fact that the SAR Government's governance still has much room for improvement, but all advanced and developed regions with a high degree of transparency cannot be exempt from such issues and we have no need to belittle ourselves.

The problem now is that the opposition camp has, for the sake of expanding its political spectrum, gone to such extent as demonizing every negative phenomenon that arises in the course of social development, attacking the SAR Government by creating the false illusion that its governance is in a mess. They even disrupt the smooth implementation of "one country, two systems" by deliberately smearing the people and affairs in the Mainland, exaggerating the shortcomings of the Mainland system, stirring up conflicts between China and Hong Kong, stressing "two systems" while evading "one country" in an attempt to distort the understanding of the general public, particularly the younger generation, about the Mainland and "one country, two systems". That gives rise to the prevalence of the advocacy of self-determination and the idea of "Hong Kong independence", which has led to incessant violate conflicts. They keep filibustering in the Legislative Council, which disrupts social stability and hinders economic development. The "anti-locust" campaign and protests against parallel traders in recent years, and also the Occupy Central movement and riots in Mong Kok were the resultant phenomena. The ongoing political instability has stuck Hong Kong's economic growth in a bottleneck. Hong Kong already lags behind the Mainland and Macao in economic growth.

President, each year on 1 July, there are people who take to the streets to voice their aspirations. I hope that people will express their wishes in a peaceful and lawful manner. The Government should listen to the people's views humbly and endeavour to make improvements, so that Hong Kong can continue to develop healthily in a harmonious environment.

President, I so submit.