Number of people on Hong Kong government honours list hits 10-year low

No members of Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s cabinet on list of award recipients, with just four prominent figures receiving the Grand Bauhinia Medal

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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor approved the recipients. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 7:01am, 1 Jul 2018Updated: 7:01am, 1 Jul 2018

The number of people on the government’s official honours list this year for their contributions to Hong Kong has dropped to a 10-year low, with fewer political figures and more professionals.

Among the list of 282 recipients – gazetted on Sunday and the first to be approved by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor – only four prominent figures are marked for the top award, the Grand Bauhinia Medal, compared with 12 last year when her predecessor Leung Chun-ying led the city.

Leung awarded 337 medals in 2013 after completing his first year in office.

This year’s Grand Bauhinia Medal awardees are Justice Robert Tang Kwok-ching, a permanent judge of the city’s highest court; Cheung Hok-ming, a leading rural leader and former Executive Council member; entrepreneur Robin Chan Yau-hing, the father of Exco convenor Bernard Chan; and renowned researcher Professor Rosie Young Tse-tse.

Professor Rosie Young Tse-tse receives a Grand Bauhinia Medal. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

No one from Lam’s cabinet is on the list, and only two are lawmakers: Ann Chiang Lai-wan and Ben Chan Han-pan of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the city’s largest pro-establishment political party, who get silver and bronze bauhinia stars respectively. No pan-democrats are on the list.