Leung government


The administration of Leung Chun-ying as Chief Executive of Hong Kong, officially referred to as "The 4th term Chief Executive of Hong Kong" relates to the period of governance of Hong Kong since the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2017.

Election

During the Hong Kong Chief Executive election, 2012, CY Leung secured a majority of the 1,132 votes cast by Election Committee members. Leung received 689 votes in all. His opponents Henry Tang and Albert Ho received 285 and 76 votes respectively. Thus, Leung was declared duly elected by the Returning Officer. After the election result was endorsed by the Central Government of the PRC, Leung took office on 1 July 2012, for a term of five years.

Mandate

Upon their elections, Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang enjoyed popularity ratings of 80 percent and 70 percent respectively. Commentators have widely suggested that by comparison, Leung's very low approval rating of 17.8 percent by participants in the mock election and a less than overwhelming 57 percent support from the Election Committee members means he lacks the mandate from the people. The Standard cited one source who suggested the fact that the active involvement of the central government liaison office in the election may deter some people from joining Leung's team. Furthermore, pundits have commented Leung's lack of support within the business community may mean Leung may have difficulty recruiting suitable and capable talent for his cabinet.

Legacy issues

In addition to general livelihood issues, specific issues inherited by Leung from the previous administration include:
  • Pregnant mainland women seeking to give birth in Hong Kong, specifically to benefit from the right of abode. Seeking to assert his authority, Leung's first public announcement on the policy as Chief Executive-elect was to impose a 'zero' quota on mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong. Leung further underlined that those who did may not be able to secure the right of abode for their offspring in Hong Kong.
  • Illegal structures, particularly on village houses and latent confrontation with the Heung Yee Kuk.
  • The future of solid waste disposal, specifically the proposal to construct a waste incinerator on Shek Kwu Chau, after Edward Yau, Environment secretary for the 2nd Tsang administration, failed to secure the support of Panel members to file its funding request to the relevant LegCo committee in April 2012.
  • As part of Hong Kong's democratic development, the Leung administration is tasked with paving the way for election, in 2017, of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage.
  • The Tsang administration resurrected plans for a "national education" that had been originally shelved until 2015. It announced in April 2012 that Moral and National Education would be introduced as a curriculum subject in both primary and secondary schools in September of the same year, becoming compulsory in primary schools in September 2015 and in secondary schools in 2016.

    Transitional team

, who was Leung's campaign manager, was appointed as head of the office of the CE-elect. Leung earlier appointed Cathy Hung as his PR officer and Allen Fung as project officer.
Leung's fourth appointment to his transitional office, of 27-year-old Chen Ran as his project officer, stirred criticism. Chen is a former general secretary of the pro-CPC Hong Kong Y.Elites Association, of which Leung is the patron. She is also the daughter of a middle-ranking government official in Shanghai, and a former member of the Communist Youth League who has resided in Hong Kong for over 6 years. Her application to permanent residency of Hong Kong has been reportedly fast-tracked. Lee Cheuk-yan criticised Leung of "seeding a Communist princeling" in the civil service. The CE-elect's office said that Chen had not been actively involved in the Youth League since 2005; the DAB said it was appropriate for Leung to recruit people who shared his vision. An op-ed in The Standard said that "almost every bright student is invited to join the CYL," but that "Leung should have been aware of the sensitivity involved".
The appointment makes the CE-elect's office the third government department to recruit a non-permanent resident since the system of non-civil service contracts was put in place in 1999.

Restructure of governing apparatus

In April 2012, chief Leung announced his plan to reform the government, "aimed at providing better service to the public while boosting governance". Under the plan, two more deputy secretaries are to be created – a new deputy chief secretary and deputy financial secretary – to join the chief secretary, financial secretary, and secretary for justice. Leung announced his desire to create a Culture Bureau; Housing and Transport would be split into two bureaux and Housing would merge with Lands and planning. The newly created Deputy chief secretary position will be responsible for the Labour and Welfare, Education and cultural affairs bureaux. The Chief Secretary is to oversee the environment, Food and health, Home affairs, Security, Civil service, and Constitutional and mainland affairs. The financial secretary is to oversee Housing, planning and lands, Works, Transport and Financial Services and the treasury bureaux. The Deputy financial secretary will be in overall charge of the Commerce, industrial and tourism, as well as the Information and technology bureaux. To allow for a smooth transition, the government agreed to table Leung's restructuring plan before LegCo before it dissolved for the summer. However, Pan Democrats believed careful scrutiny was necessary, and strongly opposed the plan to rush through the changes; People Power representatives in Legco warned they would table some 900 motions at the finance committee meeting on 15 June and over 100 amendments at the plenary council meeting on 20 June.

Cabinet

Ministry

The new ministerial line-up under Leung was announced on 28 June 2012. As Leung's proposed structure had not yet passed through the legislature, the posts were announced under the existing structures.
The line-up was expanded by adding one new Innovation and Technology Bureau headed by Nicholas Yang in November 2015.
Major changes in the office were the resignations of chief secretary for administration Carrie Lam and financial secretary John Tsang on 16 January 2017 to run in the 2017 chief executive election. The posts were filled by the secretary for labour and welfare Matthew Cheung and the secretary for development Paul Chan respectively.

Executive Council non-official members

The executive council consisted of 30 members in total: chief executive being the president of the ExCo, 3 secretaries of the department and 12 heads of the bureaux as the 16 official members; 14 non-official members. In October 2012, two additional Legislative Council members, Regina Ip, chairwoman of the New People's Party and Jeffrey Lam, vice-chairman of the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong were appointed to the executive council as non-official members after the 2012 Legislative Council election, which made the total members of the ExCo to 32. After Barry Cheung and Franklin Lam resigned from the ExCo, the chief executive did not reappoint new members to the council. Nicholas Yang became an official member of the ExCo on 20 November 2015 when he took the Secretary for Innovation and Technology post. Two more non-official members, Legislative Council members Tommy Cheung and Martin Liao were appointed in November 2016, which made the council divided evenly with 16 official and 16 non-official members excluding the chief executive.
MembersAffiliationPortfolioAssumed officeLeft officeBorn inRef
NonpartisanNon-official Convenor of the ExCo;
Former civil servant		1 July 201230 June 20171951
FTUHonorary president of FTU1 July 200230 June 20171951
NonpartisanNon-executive deputy chairman of HSBC19 October 2004Lam1949
NonpartisanManagement consultant21 January 200930 June 20171951
NonpartisanDeputy chairman of Bank of East Asia1 July 2012Lam1945
NonpartisanFormer deputy judge of High Court1 July 201230 June 20171949
NonpartisanChairman of HKEx and HKGCC1 July 2012Lam1950
NonpartisanFormer government official1 July 2012Lam1953
NonpartisanChairman of HKMEx and URA1 July 201224 May 20131955
NonpartisanExecutive director of One Country Two Systems Research Institute1 July 2012Lam1953
NonpartisanFormer senior portfolio manager at UBS Global Asset Management1 July 20121 August 20131961
NonpartisanBusinessman and politician1 July 2012Lam1965
DABVice-chairman of Heung Yee Kuk1 July 201230 June 20171952
DABLegislative Council member1 July 201217 March 20161974
NPPLegislative Council member17 October 201215 December 20161950
BPALegislative Council member17 October 2012Lam1951
NonpartisanVice President of Hong Kong Polytechnic University2 March 201520 November 20151955
DABLegislative Council member17 March 2016Lam1951
NonpartisanLegislative Council member25 November 2016Lam1957
LiberalLegislative Council member25 November 2016Lam1949