At a government-organised election forum this week, candidates for Hong Kong’s labour sector seat spent most of their time discussing patriotism, national development, and integration with mainland China. At the same time, critical workers’ issues, such as industrial fatalities, excessive working hours, and rising unemployment, were largely absent.
The moderator posed three compulsory questions, all focused on political loyalty or state-driven policy priorities: How should patriotic education be strengthened? What are the key takeaways from the CCP’s Fourth Plenum? How should Hong Kong develop its maritime economy? None of them addressed workplace safety or labour rights, despite construction deaths, fatigue-related accidents and anger over the government’s foreign labour import scheme dominating public concern in recent months.
Candidate remarks reflected the shift in Hong Kong’s political landscape since the imposition of the National Security Law in 2020, which has sharply reduced space for independent unions and critical labour advocacy. Instead of addressing working conditions, representatives from major pro-establishment labour groups discussed extending patriotic education from schools to workplaces.
Tam Kam-lin of the Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) argued that nationalism should be embedded in professional sectors, suggesting that workers be arranged trips to visit mainland China to “experience national development first-hand”. Fellow FTU figure Lam Wai-kong similarly called for patriotic programmes through trade unions and encouraged labour integration into the Greater Bay Area, Beijing’s regional economic blueprint.
On the contentious issue of labour importation, which is widely criticised for worsening job insecurity and depressing wages, candidates limited themselves to formulaic slogans such as “local workers first” and “combat abuse of the labour supplement scheme”. No one voiced opposition to the government’s expansion of foreign worker intake, despite rising unemployment among local construction workers.
The forum highlighted a striking contrast: while workplace injuries and underpayment continue to plague Hong Kong workers, electoral debate remains largely aligned with state narratives. For now, it is Beijing-oriented policymaking that dominates the political stage.