John Lee wants foreign talent in Hong Kong, but the security law scares them away

In his first policy speech, Hong Kong’s chief executive says that Xi Jinping’s draconian directives will be followed and national security will be tightened. Hong Kongers expect little from Lee. His housing plan drags down markets.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) – Hong Kong wants to attract foreign talent to improve its economic competitiveness, threatened by other jurisdictions like Singapore, this according to its new chief executive, John Lee, who made his first policy address today since taking office in July.

Lee’s goal will be tough to reach since he wants to tighten national security, one of the things that makes the former British colony less attractive to foreign investors.

This is also complicated by strict COVID-19 restrictions, and an economy that is going through hard times. In the second quarter of the year, Hong Kong’s GDP reported an annual drop of 1.3 per cent.

To help the recovery, Lee is offering two-year visas to foreigners who earned HK$ 2.5 million (US$ 320,000) in the last 12 months and graduates from the world's top 100 universities with at least a three-year work experience. And yet, for him, this goes hand in hand with tighter national security regulations.

Imposed by Beijing in June 2020, Hong Kong’s draconian security law crushed its pro-democracy movement, forcing more than 200,000 people, both Hong Kongers and foreigners, to expatriate.

Many of them are journalists. As the International Federation of Journalists noted recently, 12 newspapers and news websites have been closed after the security law was introduced.

On Sunday, at the start of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the measures taken in Hong Kong had restored stability after the chaos caused by the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

In his speech, Lee made it clear that he would follow Beijing's instructions to the letter, announcing new legislative measures in cybersecurity and "false information". The crackdown will also affect fundraising activities.

It should be noted that on 26 October the trial of Card Joseph Zen Ze-kiun will enter its final phase. Hong Kong’s archbishop emeritus is accused along with five well-known members of the pro-democracy movement of incorrectly registering a humanitarian organisation of which they were the trustees.

Until it closed in October 2021, the 612 Fund helped thousands of pro-democracy protesters involved in the 2019 demonstrations.

In Hong Kong, expectations about Lee's speech were low. According to a poll published yesterday by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, nearly 50 per cent of respondents expected little or nothing from the chief executive.

In fact, the local stock exchange sent negative signals. At the end of the day's trading, the index lost 2.4 per cent. Even Lee's housing plan (72,000 new housing units in five years) and housing price freeze measures are not convincing.

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• china
• john lee
• chief executive
• policy speech
• economic crisis
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• covid-19
• democracy
• repression
• housing
• stock exchange