Policy Advocacy

In recent years, many Hong Kong people have seen declining levels of trust in our city, whether it be their confidence in the central government and the HKSAR Government or the mutual trust between each other. Citizens’ trust in the government has dropped to the lowest point during these two years. The main objective of this study is to find out different feasible evidence-based solutions to help building mutual trust among different stakeholders including the central government, the HKSAR government and the Hong Kong people.

The theoretical basis of trust relates the confidence of citizens to existing institutions in the society. With the fall of trust, people’s societal and economic concerns have turned into fears, which have led to a spread of populist actions by the government, and irrational responses to government policies by the public. If the government could improve its trust with citizens, the implementation of policies would be more efficient and the public could have a higher tolerance for measures. We review a series of events which happened in Hong Kong since 2008, including the Global Financial Crisis (2008-09), Five Constituencies Referendum Controversy, Extradition Law Controversy and the associated protests and the recent COVID-19 pandemic to explain the changes in level of trust that Hong Kong people have for the HKSAR Government.

As it is recognized that the trust level for the government is low, our proposed solutions aim at securing the prosperity and stability of the HKSAR, and they will be implemented in different time frames respectively. These solutions include (i) addressing the challenges from COVID-19 Pandemic and its impact on the economy in the short term; (ii) on-going clarification towards the misunderstanding of the National Security Law (NSL) and improving the Electoral System of HK in the medium term; and (iii) cultivating the talents of political leaders fitting “One Country Two Systems” to solve in-depth social issues.