- Committee reviewing the crisis will not have authority to force people to give evidence, welfare secretary reveals
- Protesters want a judge-led inquiry that can investigate allegations of police brutality
An independent review committee looking into Hong Kong's protests would not be able to compel witnesses to give evidence, a government minister revealed on Monday.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong outlined for the first time the powers of the proposed panel, which is to look into the political and socio-economic causes of the anti-government unrest that has roiled the city for six months.
"The government has not considered at this initial stage giving it the subpoena powers, but I believe different parties would want to cooperate since the issues involved are important," he told a radio programme.
He added the government would rely on other evidence, such as reports from the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC), the force watchdog.
Law's comments went further than those made by other top city officials. Last week, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah did not rule out giving investigative or subpoena powers to the body when asked by the press.
Hong Kong has been gripped by civil unrest and street protests since June, which were sparked by fierce opposition to the now-withdrawn extradition bill.
Demonstrators have since expanded their demands to include calls for universal suffrage and an independent commission of inquiry, led by a judge, into allegations of police brutality.
But the government has resisted those pleas, offering instead an independent review committee to probe causes of public anger and to come up with solutions.
The committee, however will not make findings or adjudicate on individual complaints against the police force, which the government said was best left to the IPCC, an organisation that protesters accuse of lacking independence and not having sufficient investigative powers.
Giving examples of the panel's remit, Law said: "For instance, the independent review committee will look at how some so-called peaceful, rational and non-violent protesters have turned radical, or how some have gone from giving backup support to appearing on the front line."
The welfare minister also said some experts from local think tanks had agreed "on a preliminary basis" to join the committee, but added it remained unlikely the panel would be in place by the end of this year.
In the wake of the disastrous district election results for the pro-establishment camp last month, Lam said the government was in the process of setting up an independent review committee to look at the underlying causes of the protests.
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It was the first time Lam confirmed the work would be done under the format of a committee, rather than a "working group" as other officials had earlier described.
Law also defended his bureau's record on tackling poverty during his radio appearance.
The government's annual Hong Kong poverty situation report, released on Friday, showed more than 1.4 million people, or one in five Hongkongers, were living below the poverty line in 2018, representing a 10-year high and a 0.3 per cent year-on-year rise to 20.4 percentage points.
The poverty line is set at 50 per cent of median household income per month before taxation and government policy interventions, including social welfare payments, such as allowances for the elderly and low-income families.
Law said the number of people in poverty had dropped to 910,000, a reduction of 40,000 from the year before, after taking into account recurrent and one-off government allowances.
But critics have pointed to the fact that post-intervention poverty numbers still rose by 0.2 per cent from 2017 to 14.9 per cent, when only regular welfare payments were counted.
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"An ageing population in our city has meant more people fall below the poverty line next year, because many old people don't have an income and rely only on savings, which is not counted in the formula," he added.
The post-intervention poverty rate among those aged 18 to 29 also saw a year-on-year increase of 0.5 percentage points to 9.3 per cent, meaning around 90,000 young people were living in poverty.
Law attributed the increase to changing societal norms, such as more young people quitting their jobs without lining up another one.
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