Transcript of remarks by CE at media session before ExCo meeting (with video)
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Reporter: Mrs Lam, do you find the phrases "China took back Hong Kong's sovereignty" and "Hong Kong is located in the Southern China" problematic? Do you find these phrases problematic? And how would you change these phrases if you want to?
Chief Executive: No, it's not a question of me changing the phrases or the presentation. It's a question for the Committee to ensure that textbooks used in Hong Kong are accurate and precise. So I have every confidence that these experts are doing this very important task with that one single objective in mind, and that is to ensure a high degree of precision and accuracy in our textbooks. If I may give you an example about how the constitutional status of my position, the Chief Executive, should be described. I remember in 2016, in a Legislative Council motion debate, I have spent a few minutes to explain to the Legislative Council members the difference between the Chief Executive and the Chief Secretary for Administration in terms of the constitution and also how we should describe the two positions. The Chief Executive is the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as well as the head of the Hong Kong SAR Government because of her dual accountability under the Basic Law. But the Chief Secretary for Administration is only the Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong SAR Government, okay? So if we discover that there are documents in Government or in textbooks that have confused the description of these very two important government positions, isn't it right that we should take this opportunity to correct that? So I just feel that some people have overreacted to this very important exercise to ensure that the descriptions that we use, especially when we use them in textbooks, are accurate. Thank you very much.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Issued at HKT 12:01
Issued at HKT 12:01
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Audio / Video
CE meets the media