Peter Lai Hing-ling

Peter Lai (黎慶寧), was Secretary for Security of Hong Kong from 1995 to 1998, spanning the important Handover to Chinese rule.

Career

Lai graduated from Hong Kong University with a first-class honours degree in history (majoring in Modern Chinese History). In 1973, he joined the Administrative Service, and held various political and managerial posts, including in the New Territories Administration, the Urban Services Department, the Immigration Department, the Lands and Works Branch, the Civil Service Branch and the Constitutional Affairs Branch.

In the mid-1980s he took part in the negotiations between Britain and China on the future of Hong Kong, which led to the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong, as well as in negotiations in 1993 about Hong Kong's new political system. He also contributed to the drafting of the Basic Law.

In February 1995 Lai was appointed the first ethnic Chinese Secretary for Security of the Hong Kong Government, and he remained in this post until his resignation in mid-1998, the year following the Handover, when he emigrated to the United Kingdom. It was speculated that he had to resign since he was also responsible for British intelligence work in Hong Kong, and also because of his strong stance in refusing to share the information held by Hong Kong Police with the Beijing government.

He was an Associate with the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, specialising in Hong Kong's politics and constitutional developments from 1998 to 2005. Lai returned to Hong Kong and is now Adviser with the Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre. and an honorary Professor of the Department of Politics and Public Administration of the University of Hong Kong.