One doesn’t have to look very far to find criticism by Western governments and media of the system of governance we use here in Hong Kong. Words like authoritarian, dictatorial, totalitarian flow from these lips on a regular basis.

Time to take a step back and have a look at how this apparently terrible government handled the almost direct hit of super typhoon Ragasa, passing less than 50 miles (80 kms) to the south of Hong Kong with sustained record breaking wind speeds and torrential rains.

Normally such events would provide torrents of material for media “disaster porn” content with pictures of massive floods, destroyed buildings, horrific landslips, displaced citizens and on and on.

Yet today, less than 24 hours after the super typhoon was at its closest, Hong Kong is swinging back into action, the airport has reopened and is working in overdrive to clear the backlog of roughly 150,000 affected passengers, while Hong Kong’s superb mass transit system is already over 98% back in operation, along with buses, mini buses, ferries etc.

And following a change in procedure last year, the stock market maintained its normal working hours right through the storm with stories of the various support staff who have to be physically present filling up the five-star hotels located in the centre of the city in order to be able to get to work that day.

This outcome can be directly attributed to our having a results-focused administration. So often criticised by the West as not being truly democratic, this team is able to focus on delivering tangible results for the people under its responsibility instead of wasting time on political posturing. 

For the best part of the week, the arrival of this super typhoon has been very accurately predicted by our impressive weather forecasting team and the government spared no effort into putting out a steady concise, reliable flow of warning information to the public while on the other hand making preparations for all the various government departments to be 150% prepared to handle whatever the storm threw at us, in short preparing for the worst while of course hoping for the best.

Zero fatalities and a very limited number of injuries, a consistently reliable supply of electricity to all eight-plus million people throughout the storm, any local flooding dealt with very quickly, also something like 500 fallen trees rapidly removed where they were blocking roads. What more could we ask for?

in an era of ever-increasing extreme weather events, the Hong Kong model is a lesson for the rest of the world. Handling events of this nature in a highly effective manner not only protects our people but also the all-important economy. 

The West may want to argue that they have wonderful democratic systems, but at the end of the day it’s outcomes that count, not claims, and this week Hong Kong made good. 

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.