Many Hong Kong book vendors started pulling politically sensitive titles off their shelves last week fearing backlash from China.
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Pro-democray politicians heckled Hong Kong’s leader in parliament yesterday and criticised him for not speaking out about five missing booksellers feared to have been detained by authorities in mainland China.
The policy address has traditionally been a platform for leaders in the Chinese-controlled city to hand out billions to the less-advantaged or to signal shifts in economic and other political policies.
But as Leung devoted a whole chapter of his speech at the Legislative Council yesterday to the belt and road initiative, critics pointed out that he had yet to deliver on earlier policy promises.
Amid growing skepticism about his rule among Hong Kong residents, Leung rolled out initiatives for the remaining 18 months of his term.
Asked later if he was trying to impress Xi, Leung replied: “If I don’t advocate something for Hong Kong, do not draw up strategies… not only the central government will blame me, the 7.5 million Hong Kong people will blame me too”.
The dominance of “One Belt, One Road” in Leung’s latest policy address drew criticism that he was pandering to mainland authorities and paving the way for himself to be re-elected by Beijing next year.
Leung later acknowledged that some residents neither understood nor were interested in “One Belt, One Road”.
The city, one of two special administrative regions of China (Macau is the other), has long struggled with pricey housing, a costly standard of living and a lack of free elections; all factors that have pushed Leung’s popularity rating to its lowest level since he took office in 2012, according to a Tuesday poll by the Hong Kong University Public Opinion Program. “We should continue to tackle the housing problem head-on and must not concede”.
He said the government will not relax demand-side management measures or reduce land supply. “Why don’t you answer Hong Kong people”, Labour Party’s Lee Cheuk-yan yelled.
Leung also said the money would be allocated to establish and invest in various Internet projects, to double the number of Wi-Fi access points up to 34,000 in three years, as well as to double the speed of the wireless Internet connection in public areas. If that was the case, it would represent a flagrant breach of autonomy guaranteed to Hong Kong by Beijing in a constitution drawn up in 1997, when the former British colony was returned to Chinese sovereignty.
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The Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the U.S. dollar has made it an increasingly expensive destination for mainland Chinese who come to shop and buy property.
