Former undersecretary for the environment Christine Loh will work on updating and revising her book Underground Front: The Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong, first published in 2010.
Loh left the government in July following a term with the Leung Chun-ying administration in 2012. She has to report any new employment, within the first year of leaving, to the Advisory Committee on Post-office Employment for Former Chief Executives and Politically Appointed Officials.
Loh is currently an adjunct professor at the Division of Environment and Sustainability at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
The Committee on Friday issued a statement that said Loh will be working as an author with the Hong Kong University Press to update and revise the book, and to prepare a manuscript for publication.
The book remains a key text examining the role of the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong since its founding in 1921. It includes a survey on local attitudes to the Communist Party and reveals how Beijing coordinates efforts under the PRC United Front Strategy to assert greater control in the territory.
The Committee said the proposed employment of Loh would not cause any potential conflicts of interest. But the Committee gave four areas that Loh should not be involved in when taking on new roles.
For instance, she should not reveal any classified or sensitive information – or information she gained as undersecretary – which was not already public. She also cannot include in the book anything from her tenure which may cause embarrassment to the government.
Loh was the CEO of the public policy think tank Civic Exchange when she wrote the book. She was a lawmaker between 1992 and 2000 before founding the think tank.
Eddie Ng
Meanwhile, the Committee also reviewed a new employment role for former education secretary Eddie Ng. He will be a temporary adjunct professor at the MBA Centre, Shanghai University.
His main duties, according to the Committee, will be “to prepare course outline and teaching content according to standing guideline for a four-day programme on Organisational Behaviour in English; and to cover teaching and student assessment for course performance.”
The Committee also said Ng’s new employment would not cause any potential conflicts of interest relating to rules on disclosure of classified or sensitive information.
