The cover of Carrie Lam’s Policy Address released last month featured a blue sky, which was said to denote an attempt to bring a sense of hope to Hong Kong. But as a young Hong Konger, I see the Address a Greater Bay Area report and is one that betrays young people.

The Address this year offers nothing to people at the grassroots sector and young Hong Kongers. Many people are probably quite disappointed. Unlike last year, only four pages are devoted to youth policy this time, and the main point is about encouraging young people to work and live in the Greater Bay Area. It might as well be called a “Report on Betraying Youths”. Not only will the SAR export its assets to the Greater Bay Area but it also wants to send to the area its talent, the most important thing the city has. Hong Kong’s youth policy today is either about putting young people behind bars or planning on how to send them to the Greater Bay Area.

Lam said that she would support local universities’ education programs in the Greater Bay Area and also promote the Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme as well as a scheme supporting young entrepreneurs to start businesses in the Greater Bay Area. This is tantamount to moving Hong Kong’s talent pool northward. In doing so, Lam is responding to Xi Jinping’s call made during his recent trip to southern China for drawing more young people in Hong Kong and Macau to study and work in the mainland. People in the pro-establishment camp are of the view that young Hong Kongers misunderstand the country or do not know enough about it, thinking that wages in the mainland are low and unattractive. But these people actually do not understand what young Hong Kongers are thinking. They are completely out of touch. According to some studies, people who have joined exchange programs in mainland China have a more pessimistic outlook on the mainland’s political and economic future than those who have not joined such schemes.

Young people in Hong Kong as an international city should get connected with the international community if they are to broaden their horizons. The Greater Bay Area has been plagued by scams and negative news of late. Yet the Hong Kong government would rather close its eyes and blindly support the central government by actively promoting the Greater Bay Area. It tells Hong Kongers to embrace the Greater Bay Area, but eventually people heeding the government’s call may get deceived in one way or another. Recently, about 40 Hong Kong people investing in the Greater Bay Area have allegedly fallen into a scam. Having been deceived, they protested outside the Liaison Office in Hong Kong. Even for young people who are “patriotic and love Hong Kong”, they would not dare to invest in the area once they get cheated there.

Lam’s words are not matched by actions. She previously encouraged young people to get into politics, but members of the Youth Development Commission are invariably pro-establishment. Those elected this year are children of wealthy people or pro-government, including Lau Ming-wai, Kenneth Fok and members of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong who lost in District Council elections. The voices of the majority of youths in Hong Kong are not heard, and young people who ran in Legislative Council (LegCo) elections were subject to political scrutiny and then disqualified. This goes to show the government simply does not tolerate voices of dissent among young people. Among the 12 pro-democracy candidates who ran in the now-postponed LegCo election and were later disqualified, eight are young people.

The Policy Address also fails to tackle the housing problem facing young people. Lam suggested providing youth hostel places, but that amounts to a drop in the bucket and the tenancy lasts for five years only. This in-between arrangement can do nothing to help young people overcome the difficulty of buying their own homes. The PH2 youth hostel places offered in 2019 can accommodate 80 people. But about 60,000 people under the age of 25 are renting subdivided flats today. The fact that such tiny flats are occupied by more and more young people shows that the government does not consider the housing needs of young people.

Young people in Hong Kong hope to have a secure home in their own city. Although the Policy Address this year is about bringing hope to Hong Kong, Lam has obviously failed to take care of issues that young people are concerned about. That is simply disappointing. The youth policy spread over four pages includes many old elements packaged as new stuff. The measures can hardly bring young people a sense of hope, not to mention security. The Address also assumes the coronavirus pandemic, which erupted a year ago, will soon be over. It offers no specific economic or job-related measures to help people. Rather, it once again shows that Lam lets politics override people’s livelihood. Gradually moving Hong Kong’s remaining strengths and resources to the Greater Bay Area is just a means to please the Chinese government.

(Andy Yu Tak-po, Vice Chairman of the Yau Tsim Mong District Council )

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