Government of Hong Kong


The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the executive branch of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the handover of Hong Kong. It is led by the Chief Executive, who together with the principal officials form the Executive Council, which is the government's de facto cabinet.
The Chief Executive, who is responsible to both Hong Kong and the Central People's Government in Beijing, is appointed by the State Council of China after being elected by the 1500-member Election Committee. The Chief Executive in turn nominates the principal officials for appointment by the State Council of China. The Chief Secretary, who is the most senior principal official, leads the Government Secretariat, which contains most of the government's departments and permanent bureaucracy.
Under the principle of separation of powers, members of the government, including both political appointees and civil servants, cannot run for election to the Legislative Council, to which the government is accountable. The government must rely on the legislature to enact primary legislation and grant supply.
Under the "one country, two systems" constitutional principle, the Government is, in law, exclusively in charge of Hong Kong's internal affairs and specified external relations. The Central People's Government, from which the Hong Kong government is financially independent, is responsible for Hong Kong's defence and foreign policy, while decisions made by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress can, in certain circumstances, override Hong Kong courts. The Hong Kong SAR government replaced the former British Hong Kong Government in 1997. Despite gradually evolving, the general governmental structure was inherited from British Hong Kong.
On February 28, 2024, the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan, announced the Special Administrative Region's government budget for the fiscal year 2024 to 2025. Under the 2024-25 budget, total government expenditure is set to rise by 6.7 percent to HK$776.9 billion.

Powers

Historical position (1841-1997)

As a crown colony and later a dependent territory of the United Kingdom, the government's executive authority was vested in the British monarch, which was exercised by the governor of Hong Kong as the representative of the Crown. The governor was appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. Unlike self-governing dominions, which share a common monarch but a separate monarchy who can only be advised by the government of the dominion in their exercise of executive power, the Crown in right of Hong Kong could be advised by the British government in London, making the British Hong Kong government constitutionally subservient to Westminster. Article VIII of the Hong Kong Letters Patent conferred on the governor a legislative power, authorising him, "by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council", to "make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Colony".
In practice, executive power was exercised by the governor in consultation with the Executive Council, with the imperial government in London rarely directly intervening in the colony's affairs. The governor served as president of the council and effectively appointed all of its members, with the council advising the governor on all policymaking matters. This in effect meant that all policy and administrative matters had to be considered by the Executive Council before being debated by the legislature. The governor-in-council also had the power to make secondary legislation, and to consider appeals, petitions and objections.

After the Handover (1997-present)

Upon the handover of Hong Kong on 1 July 1997, sovereignty over the territory was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China. The Hong Kong government largely exercised the same powers and functions, but the source of that power shifted from the Crown to the National People's Congress. Article 2 of the Basic Law states that the National People's Congress authorises the HKSAR to enjoy executive power, suggesting that Hong Kong does not inherently possess such powers.
The powers and functions to be exercised by the Government of Hong Kong are set out in Article 62 of the Basic Law:
  1. To formulate and implement policies;
  2. To conduct administrative affairs;
  3. To conduct external affairs as authorised by the Central People's Government under ;
  4. To draw up and introduce budgets and final accounts;
  5. To draft and introduce bills, motions and subordinate legislation; and
  6. To designate officials to sit in on the meetings of the Legislative Council and to speak on behalf of the government.

    Modern constitutional position

While Hong Kong is often described as having a clear separation of powers with three distinct branches of government, the Hong Kong and Chinese governments frequently assert that Hong Kong has an "executive-led" form of governance and insist that Hong Kong has no formal separation of powers. The requirement that the Chief Executive's consent be obtained before the introduction of bills relating to government policy in the Legislative Council, the split voting system for private members' bills in the Legislative Council, and restriction on private members' bills relating to public spending or the political structure or operation of the government are sometimes cited as features of the "executive-led" system.

Head of government

The Chief Executive is the head of the Region and head of government of Hong Kong. The Basic Law designates a system of governance led by a Chief Executive and an Executive Council, under the principles of separation of powers, with a two-tiered system of semi-representative government and an independent judiciary. The Chief Executive is elected by an Election Committee, a 1500-member electoral college consisting of individuals and bodies elected within 40 functional constituencies defined in the Basic Law. The winner is then appointed to the position by the Premier of the People's Republic of China. The Chief Executive is responsible for implementing the Basic Law, signing bills and budgets, promulgating laws, making decisions on government policies, and issuing Executive Orders. Then Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, began exercise of her unfettered residual powers of law-making by decree on 4 October 2019, under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, Chapter 241 of the Laws of Hong Kong, bypassing the legislature.
the Chief Executive of Hong Kong officially replaced the Governor of Hong Kong as the head of the government for Hong Kong following the handover. The Chief Executive is assisted by the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Financial Secretary, and other secretaries who heads policy bureaus. The secretaries for each government affairs are appointed by the State Council of China on the nomination of the Chief Executive. The Secretary for Justice is responsible for legal matters of the government and prosecution for criminal cases in the territory. The Independent Commission Against Corruption and Audit Commission report directly to the Chief Executive. The current Chief Executive is John Lee.

Ministers and political organs

Executive Council

The Executive Council decides on matters of policy, the introduction of bills to the Legislative Council and the drafting of subordinate legislation. The Council consists of 21 principal officials and 16 non-official members. All members are appointed by the Chief Executive from among the senior officials of the executive authorities, members of the Legislative Council, and other influential public personnels. They serve for a period no longer than the expiry of the Chief Executive's term of office.

Principal officials

In a system popularly called the Principal Officials Accountability System introduced by then Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa in July 2002, all principal officials, including the Chief Secretary, Financial Secretary, Secretary for Justice, heads of government bureaux and the Director of the Chief Executive's Office would no longer be politically neutral career civil servants, but would all be political appointees chosen by the Chief Executive from within or outside the civil service. The system was portrayed as the key to solve previous administrative problems, notably the co-operation of high-ranking civil servants with the Chief Executive.
Under the new system, there are 3 Secretaries of department and 13 Directors of Bureaux. The system is aimed at raising the accountability of the civil service, so the political appointees are responsible for all their job aspects and will step down if they make any failure. All heads of bureaux became members of the Executive Council, and came directly under the Chief Executive instead of the Chief Secretary or the Financial Secretary.

Deputy ministers and political assistants

The government released a report on the Further Development of the Political Appointment System on 17 October 2007. Two new layers, deputy directors of Bureaux and Assistants to Directors would be added to the political appointments. Each Director of Bureau will be assisted by the two new appointees and constitute the political team, who would ostensibly work closely with bureau secretaries and top civil servants in implementing the Chief Executive's policy agenda in an executive-led government. As with the principal officials, these two new posts may be drawn from within or outside the civil service, and appointees may or may not have a political background.
Eight new Under-secretaries were named on 20 May, and nine Political Assistant appointments were announced on 22 May 2008. By the administration's own admission, the announcements were poorly handled, and there was widespread criticism of several key aspects, namely the nationality and experience of appointees, the transparency of the recruitment process and the level of officials' salaries.