Government and society

Constitutional framework

When it was a colony, Hong Kong was administered by a governor, who was appointed by and represented the monarch of the United Kingdom, directed the government, served as the commander in chief, and presided over the two main organs of government, the Executive Council and the Legislative Council. With the resumption of Chinese sovereignty over the territory in July 1997, the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (promulgated by the National People’s Congress of China in 1990) went into effect. The guiding principle of the Basic Law was the concept of “one country, two systems,” under which Hong Kong was allowed to maintain its capitalist economy and to retain a large degree of political autonomy (except in matters of foreign policy and defense) for a period of 50 years. A controversial security law passed by the mainland government and imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, however, had the ability to weaken the concept of “one country, two systems” and threatened the political autonomy that the region had enjoyed.

The Basic Law vests executive authority in a chief executive, who is under the jurisdiction of the central government in Beijing and serves a five-year term. Legislative authority rests with a Legislative Council (LegCo), whose 70 members (increased from 60 for the 2012 legislative elections) serve a four-year term; the chief executive, however, can dissolve the council before the end of a term.

According to the Basic Law, the chief executive for the second term was appointed by the central government, following election by an 800-member Election Committee in Hong Kong. The constituencies for LegCo members were then defined during their second and third terms, and by the third term half had been directly elected from geographic constituencies and half had been selected from “functional constituencies” drawn from business and professional circles. The Basic Law further states, however, that the chief executive and council members ultimately were to be elected by universal suffrage. Those electoral procedures were to have been determined by 2007, but in that year the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in Beijing ruled that universal suffrage would not be implemented before 2012. A 1,200-member Election Committee chose a new chief executive in 2012, but by then Beijing had indicated that direct election for that office may be permitted in 2017. However, that never came to pass, leading to widespread concern among pro-democracy Hong Kong citizens that true universal suffrage would never be implemented.

Civil and criminal law is derived generally from that of the United Kingdom, and the Basic Law states that this system is to be maintained. The highest court in the judiciary is the Court of Final Appeal, headed by a chief justice. This is followed by the High Court (headed by a chief judge) and by district, magistrate, and special courts. The chief executive appoints all judges, although judges of the Court of Final Appeal and the chief judge of the High Court also must be confirmed by the Legislative Council and reported to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

Health and welfare

The health of the populace is generally good, the result, in part, of an aggressive program of public measures, including the promotion of preventive medicine and personal health services, and a relatively high quality of life. Improving health indexes and a downward trend in the occurrence of major communicable diseases are leading indicators of the state of health in Hong Kong. Most deaths are caused by cancer, heart disease, and respiratory diseases. Hospitals are divided into three groups: government, government-assisted, and private. These hospitals are under great pressure to meet the needs of the people. Clinics, some operated by the government, supplement other medical facilities. Boat-borne clinics provide services to some outlying villages.

The social security system long was largely limited to emergency relief programs. However, since the mid-1990s, spending on social welfare has increased significantly. There are assistance programs for the unemployed, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The aging of the population, coupled with the extreme crowding in the city, has been one of the main issues with elder care. More recent programs have included those focused on family welfare (including day care), counseling services, and accident compensation.

Housing

Historically, housing has been a major problem in Hong Kong, where space is limited and the number of occupants ever-growing. Changes in the residential environment between the establishment of the colony in 1842 and the Japanese occupation in 1941 were moderate, compared to those that took place in the postwar years. There was no planning in the earlier days of development, except that generally the British lived on the Peak (the area around Victoria Peak), other nationalities in the Mid-Levels (below the Peak), and the wealthy on somewhat higher ground, where the grand garden houses and large mansions remain as landmarks. Most of the Chinese lived on the lowlands surrounding the harbor, where the streets were narrow and the houses made of wood, bricks, and mortar. The houses lacked not only good natural lighting and ventilation but also piped water and flush toilets. Frequently urban development was the result of plagues, fires, and typhoons rather than of comprehensive city planning. However, the government has made efforts to construct public housing and to reduce the number of squatters and homeless people in the region.

The limited housing supply was further reduced by the ravages of World War II. In the early postwar years, more than half of all families shared accommodations with others, living in cubicles, bed spaces, and attics and on roofs and verandas and in similar quarters. The colonial government’s reluctant involvement in housing provision began with the building of resettlement blocks for fire victims in 1953, but it took real impetus in the early 1960s when the great demand for urban land resulted in the relocation of large numbers of squatters and urban poor. Public housing came to accommodate more than half of the population, most of them living far from the urban core, though by the early 21st century the proportion of the populace in public units was about one-third. Large numbers of people have settled into the new towns, and the design capacity for most of these areas has been increased.

Education

Most of the schools from kindergarten to secondary are either subsidized or aided by public funds, although there also are a large number of private schools. The number of public schools in Hong Kong is quite small though increasing. Education is compulsory through the junior secondary level. Students finishing primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary education take examinations for allocation of school places at the next higher level.

Postsecondary schools, mostly subsidized, are strained by their small size, although efforts are being made to increase the size and number of institutions. The combined enrollment of the two universities, the University of Hong Kong (1911) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1963), has risen dramatically since the mid-1980s. The Hong Kong Polytechnic (1972), with mainly technical and vocational courses, and the Hong Kong Baptist University (1956), a private institution, offer degree courses in selected subjects. Colleges of education train teachers, mainly for primary schools, while responsibility for teacher training for secondary education rests with the two universities. In 1984 the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong (now the City University of Hong Kong) accepted its first students. Numerous other vocational, technical, and industrial-training institutions operate throughout Hong Kong, and thousands of students are also enrolled in extension programs. Nonetheless, thousands also travel overseas each year for study. Nearly all of Hong Kong’s people have at least a primary school education.