How should leaders govern the people?

Michael Chugani July 30, 2026 00:00

A senior Mainland official once advised Donald Tsang Yam-kuen when he was the chief executive to think like the people do. It was good advice. Leaders who want to effectively serve the people need to know what they are thinking.

Tsang had his faults - no one is perfect - but he did listen to different voices, even using public opinion polls to persuade Mainland officials to expedite democracy. Beijing wasn't convinced about the timing but at least Tsang tried.

Savvy political leaders, whether of democracies or other systems, are guided by public opinion when shaping important policies that impact a large part of the population. US President Donald Trump, a Republican, has largely ignored that political wisdom, especially during his second term which began in January of last year.

He listens mostly to himself and a few close advisers, denigrates Democratic Party leaders, is fixated on unproven claims that he won the 2020 presidential election even though multiple vote counts and court rulings confirmed Joe Biden won. He recently repeated his falsehoods of rigged elections by releasing classified documents to show China interfered to help Biden.

But it backfired. Most news outlets said their scrutiny of the documents showed it was Russia which interfered to help Trump, not China trying to help Biden. Even the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News and Wall Street Journal which mostly support Trump were skeptical of his claims.

Polls show most Americans want Trump to focus on livelihood issues such as rising inflation, high gasoline prices, and unaffordable food costs caused by his Iran war and other policies. But he cares more about his pricey vanity projects funded mostly by taxpayers, such as a gilded White House ballroom and a 250-foot arch in Washington DC like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Tung Chee-hwa was on a live Hong Kong radio station phone-in show around the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival when he was the chief executive. When a caller bemoaned his financial hardship, Tung told the caller to enjoy the festival with mooncakes. He meant well, but telling someone struggling financially to eat pricey mooncakes showed Tung couldn't think like the people.

Leung Chun-ying was not often adept at feeling the pulse of the people when he was chief executive, but he understood the public's sentiment on two key issues involving mainlanders. He abruptly banned pregnant mainland women from giving birth in Hong Kong to acquire abode rights for their new-born when locals complained too many were flooding in.

And when mainlanders were making multiple trips to Hong Kong to snap up safer baby milk powder, causing severe shortages for local mothers, he restricted visitors to just two cans of baby formula.

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was often incapable of thinking like the people during her time as Hong Kong's top leader. This became obvious when she was tone deaf to public opinion even when an estimated two million Hongkongers marched peacefully to oppose her ill-fated extradition bill.

Her obstinacy turned peaceful protests into violence, causing Beijing to quell the violence with a national security law which dramatically changed the face of Hong Kong politics. Contrast Lam's obstinacy to Tung who postponed the controversial Article 23 national security legislation when an estimated 500,000 people peacefully marched against it in 2003. Tung knew the timing was not right for Article 23 when even the pro-government Liberal Party withdrew its support.

Does the current government think like the people? I don’t know, but it is understandably hard to think like the people when there is a lack of independent public opinion polls, no opposition in the legislature, and not even peaceful street protests.

I can only judge by how the government handled key issues. Environment and Ecology Secretary Tse Chin-wan clearly wasn't thinking like the people when he pushed for the waste charging scheme. I fully support the scheme for environmental reasons, but Hongkongers inexplicably do not. Tse had to suspend the scheme.

Hongkongers and green groups were clearly aghast when mainlanders flooded natural beauty sites such as Sharp Island’s Geopark, a UNESCO-listed site, during major holidays where they camped, barbecued, destroyed marine life, and left behind mountains of trash.

But Hong Kong officials couldn't feel the public’s alarm until green groups exposed the ecological damage. Negative media publicity of the damage pressured officials to strengthen rules to protect marine life. It was a clear example of officials acting on hindsight instead of foresight.

Protecting Hong Kong’s natural beauty is close to my heart as a Hong Kong-born. I loved hiking in the country parks when I lived in Hong Kong and still do every time I visit. I never tire of admiring Hong Kong’s scenic harbor by day or night. The government rightly thought like the people when it strengthened rules to protect the city’s natural beauty such as Sharp Island’s Geopark.

I will end with the government's handling of ride-hailing services. I care about such services because I use Uber wherever I am. Many cities have long legalized it. The government's own surveys show Hongkongers much prefer ride-hailing services to taxis.

But after dragging its feet with proposed legislation, the government has decided to issue only 10,000 ride-hailing permits even though some legislators familiar with the thinking of the traveling public have warned that's not enough to meet demand. Will someone, hopefully a senior mainland official, please tell the government to think like the people?

Michael Chugani

A Hong Kong-born American citizen who has worked for many years as a journalist in Hong Kong, the USA and London.