A flag-raising ceremony is held to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland in Hongkong on Sunday morning. [Photo/Xinhua] Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said on Sunday she has even greater confidence in Hong Kong a year after taking office, thanks to strong support from the central government and joint efforts from different sectors. She made the remark to about 2,000 guests, including representatives of the central government and the SAR government, foreign diplomats in Hong Kong and local dignitaries, at a reception celebrating the 21st anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland on Sunday morning after a flag-raising ceremony. Lam attributed her confidence to the central government's strong support and President Xi Jinping's care for Hong Kong. During his three-day inspection tour from June 29 to July 2 last year, marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the mainland, Xi expressed his cordial care for Hong Kong and gave four imperatives. Xi's visit created the exceptionally favorable ground for the current-term Hong Kong government to run the city in accordance with the law, assume a proactive role, develop the economy and improve people's livelihoods, Lam said. Over the past year, Hong Kong maintained robust economic growth, recording a 3.8 percent increase in real gross domestic product in 2017, followed by 4.7 percent in the first quarter of 2018. The unemployment rate dropped to a 20-year low of 2.8 percent. Lam and the SAR government's work and achievement during the past year was recognized by Wang Zhimin, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the SAR, who said at a separate event on Sunday that her first year was a good start. Wang said Lam and the SAR government managed the city in accordance with the law and implemented the one country, two systems principle by making full use of Hong Kong's unique competitiveness and actively joining the national development. Wong Kwok-kin, a Legislative Council member from the city's biggest labor union, said Lam is bold and resolute in building public trust in the government, improving the administrative-legislative relationship and fostering social cohesion. Starry Lee Wai-king, chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the city's largest political party, agreed with Wong. Lee noted that in the past year there was an increase in the number of bills and the amount of works funding passed by the Legislative Council. After assuming office, the chief executive has attended legislative meetings often to answer questions from lawmakers. Enhanced communication between the government and the legislature means greater efficiency, Lee said. Speaking of the government's work in the future, Lam emphasized the importance of engaging young people. The government has been providing young people with more opportunities to take up internships on the Chinese mainland for deeper understanding of national developments and to participate in the Hong Kong SAR's affairs. And Hong Kong youth today enjoy bright prospects and abundant opportunities presented by the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development. Young people should aspire to develop into a new generation with a sense of national identity, an affection for Hong Kong and an international perspective, who are also passionate about and committed to the well-being of the Hong Kong community, Lam said. plastic braceletspersonalized rubber braceletssilicone rubber bandscustom printed wristbands
TOKYO - Japan's main opposition Democratic Party on Tuesday filed a censure motion against a senior minister in the latest education scandal to hit the government. Japan's Education Ministry said on Friday that it would reinvestigate the existence of documents that may implicate Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other senior officials in allowing Kake Educational Institution, run by a close friend of Abe's, to open a new veterinary school at a location highly deregulated by the government. The censure motion has been brought against the Regional Revitalization Minister Kozo Yamamoto. KEI is chaired by Abe's close friend Kotaro Kake and was selected for the project in a meeting held between the central and local governments in the special strategic zone in January. It operates Okayama University of Science, which was handpicked by the government to open the new veterinary medicine school in Ehime Prefecture, one of Japan's special zones that were formed as part of Abe's economic strategy. The local city assembly provided the land to the institution to build the new department for free and in addition gave 9.6 billion yen ($86 million) as a subsidy for the construction costs. It was the first time in 50 years that the government approved a plan to open a new veterinary department. This month, a former vice-education minister released a statement backing up his previous assertions that senior government advisers had pressured him to accelerate procedures to open the school. Opposition parties have called for Maekawa, who has admitted to having knowledge of documents that could be potentially damaging to Abe, be summoned to the Parliament - known as the Diet - to give testimony under oath. The Education Ministry carried out an internal investigation. However, the probe was criticized by both opposition parties and the public after the ministry said the documents could not be found. Along with Maekawa, the opposition believe that the education ministry had prepared a document stating that the Cabinet Office said that "Abe backs the plan" to open the new school. The document also reportedly suggests that the education ministry was told by the Cabinet Office that the choice for the new department "was heard to have been the prime minister's wish." The Democratic Party also maintains that one of the documents in question shows that negotiations had taken place between the ministry and the Cabinet Office regarding the time frame for opening the new department, which had been scheduled for April 2018. It is claimed that one document states: "This is what the highest level of the prime minister's office has said." Another document mentioned that opening the department at an early juncture was "in line with the prime minister's wishes". Separately, a censure motion was also filed against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda on Tuesday by the Democratic Party and Japanese Communist Party over his alleged mishandling of deliberations on a controversial conspiracy bill that if passed could give unprecedented powers to law enforcement officers to infringe on people's civil rights. Xinhua
