The Hong Kong Chief Executive Election and the Challenges of the C.Y. Leung Administration

ASIA FORUM with Dr. Joseph Cheng

Chair Professor of Political Science, Contemporary China Research Project, City University of Hong Kong

 

Monday, March 4, 2013, 10:00-11:30

 The lecture intends to cover the processes of the Chief Executive election in Hong Kong in 2012, analyze their significant political implications, and the impact on Hong Kong’s development in the near future, with considerable emphasis on the difficulties facing the Chinese authorities. The article would also examine the broader theoretical implications of the meaning of democracy to Hong Kong people in the context of their demands and dissatisfaction with the HKSAR government.

 

The Chief Executive election in 2012 reinforces the community’s pessimism regarding the territory’s future. The new administration of C.Y. Leung lacks the political will and support to introduce significant reforms to restore and enhance Hong Kong’s international economic competitiveness and narrow the gap between the rich and poor through improvement of the social security net. At the same time, people’s grievances would continue to gather, especially among the younger generation, and protests will be frequent. Like people in Mainland China, Hong Kong people would protest and demonstrate to exert pressure on the local government, while sending a message to the Chinese authorities in Beijing and the international community.

 

Dr. Joseph Cheng is Chair Professor of Political Science, Contemporary China Research Project at the City University of Hong Kong. Between September 1977 and April 1989 he was the Assistant Lecturer (up to Feb 1979), then Lecturer (up to Dec 1985, and then Senior Lecturer at the Department of Government and Public Administration of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr. Cheng was elected “Best Teacher” of the Department in 1987. From April 1989 to December 1990 he was the Dean, School of Arts and Humanities, Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong. From January 1991 to June 1992 he was a Member of the Central Policy Unit, Hong Kong Government Secretariat. Between July 1992 and April 1995 Dr. Cheng was the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong.

 

 

To attend, RSVP by March 1, 2013 to Mr. Robert Nilsson at rnilsson@isdp.eu