When Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po decided to pour $1.2 billion into sports promotion, he was investing in Hong Kong’s youth to lead the city into a secure and bright future.
There is no doubt that sport develops the mind to positive thinking. And that is what is needed among Hong Kong’s youth.
Chan’s cash input into the Arts and Sports Development Fund will be used to strengthen training for team sports athletes, improve the professional standards of coaches, as well as supporting and exploring more diverse and higher-level sports competitions to be held in Hong Kong.
This injection of funds will also enable organizations to develop and promote sport to international levels to attract tourism by staging major events like the Rugby Sevens and professional golf and tennis matches.
In Hong Kong there is virtually no graffiti, as our youth are too preoccupied with study or work to mess about with vandalism, unlike in the west where buildings and subways are defaced by vandals with too much idle time on their hands.
Hong Kong youth are keen sports participants and through those activity come discipline. Thus, no graffiti.
During his budget speech, Chan praised Hong Kong athletes for having achieved outstanding results on the international stage. Last year, local athletes achieved historic results in the National Games, winning nine gold, two silver and eight bronze medals. With this in mind, Chan allocated more resources to proactively promote sports in the community, support elite sports, maintain Hong Kong as a centre for major international sports events, enhance professionalism in sports, and develop sports as an industry.
However, their minds are still young and subject to exploitation by undesirable forces as we learned in 2019 when the US Department of State’s National Endowment for Development (NED) infiltrated primary and secondary schools as well a university graduates and convinced them to rebel against Hong Kong and seek its independence. There was a price to pay for the young rebels as well as the community, which suffered losses in property and lives.
The NED is still here waiting to strike again when the time is ripe, and Hong Kong will be prepared for such an onslaught.
The minds of our youth must be attuned to recognizing the good and the bad. They must be able to recognize that the propaganda uttered by NED is false and must be repelled. Primary school children can become intensely focused on peer relationships, which means team dynamics can be a powerful vehicle for learning conflict resolution. And this is where sports comes in.
Playing sports teaches far more than how to throw a ball or run faster. It builds a specific set of mental, emotional, and social skills that show up in classrooms, careers, and relationships long after the final whistle. The lessons range from obvious ones like teamwork to less visible changes in how the brain handles stress, makes decisions, and stays focused under pressure.
Throughout their adolescent years young players grow from being mere team members to team leaders. They learn as a team and the importance that has on their future life.
Research on athlete leadership development shows that effective team captains learn specific skills through their roles: clear communication, emotional control, tactical decision-making, and the ability to make sure every teammate has a voice. These aren’t traits people are born with. They’re practiced and refined through the daily demands of being on a team.
Not all sports teach the same things in the same way. A 2025 study in Frontiers in Psychology found a clear split: team sports primarily build psychological resilience through social support, while individual sports like swimming, tennis, or track build them through self-efficacy, your belief in your own ability to handle challenges.
Sports don’t just work your body. They sharpen three core mental abilities that an psychologist grouped the term as an “executive function”: working memory (holding and juggling information in your head), impulse control (resisting a snap reaction to make a better choice), and cognitive flexibility (switching between tasks or strategies on the fly). A meta-analysis published in Brain Sciences found large improvements in all three areas among children and adolescents who participated in sports-based programs.
With a pure mind developed by sports, our youth today, with support from the government, will lead Hong Kong into a futuristic world planned by their forefathers and shielding us from external forces which threaten our existence.
Mark Pinkstone
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
When China’s Paramount Leader Deng Xiao Ping floated the idea of one country two systems for the future of Hong Kong, the west scoffed at the possibility of a communist regime and a capitalist bastion living hand in hand. Some 29 years later the prophets of doom were proven wrong as Hong Kong is now more prosperous than ever and it’s future will be more so.
For more than 150 years Hong Kong lived under a British colonial rule. There was no democracy, only authoritarian management. The succession of ruling governors were hand-picked by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and appointed by the Prime Minister, without any consultation with the people of Hong Kong.
But the people of Hong Kong didn’t mind. If they had never seen democracy, how could they miss it. The governors were diplomats and their upper-crust training ensured that the natives were happy and that their rice bowls were filled. The diplomats got on well with the Chinese government as they knew that harmony was the key component to a successful relationship.
Then came along a politician for the first time to run Hong Kong in the name of Chris Patten, who had lost his seat in the Bath electorate, about 156 km west of London. John Major was Prime Minister at the time and a good friend of Patten. So, to make up for the political loss in Bath, Major offered Patten the cushy job of being governor of Hong Kong.
In 1992 Patten and his family arrived in Hong Kong and as a typical politician, he arrived like a bull in a china shop (pun intended). There was no diplomacy involved. Patten and Major had decided that the foreign office diplomats were pussy-footing with the Chinese during the previous decade negotiating Hong Kong’s future and a firmer stand was necessary.
Unlike his predecessors, Patten knew nothing of Chinese traditions and customs. He just could not understand Chinese mentality and that applied not only to the mainlanders but also the local Chinese. The East is East and the West is West and never the twain shall meet wrote poet Rudyard Kipling in 1889. But, in Hong Kong they did.
The Joint Declaration between Great Britain and China on the future of Hong Kong and the subsequent Basic Law (Hong Kong’s mini constitution) provided the pathway for Hong Kong’s future, including democratic elections for the city’s legislative council. But Patten was impatient and decided to introduce a fully elected legislature in 1995 immediately before the handover in 1997. This infuriated the Chinese-side, and they provided for a provisional legislature to replace Patten’s council as soon as Hong Kong was reverted to Beijing’s administration.
After 1997, Hong Kong formed its first directly elected Legislative Council in 1998, while the Chief Executive is elected by an Election Committee — a system similar to the U.S. presidential election. Hong Kong's Election Committee now has 1,500 members, whereas the U.S. Electoral College has only 538 members.
Since then, Hong Kong has flourished. The prophets of doom and Kipling were wrong. Despite many attempts by the west to dismantle the Deng formula Hong Kong is one of the most successful places on the planet. Year after year it is breaking records to the envy of many. Hong Kong has secured third place in the Global Financial Centres Index. In the latest World Competitiveness Ranking, Hong Kong's position has risen one spot further to rank second globally. And in the World Talent Ranking, Hong Kong has moved up 10 places to rank the fourth globally and the first in Asia. Hong Kong also continues to come first as the world's freest economy. And Hong Kong has what many want – stability.
The Hong Kong formula is unique and successful. Never tried before, it was seen as an experiment and the world was watching, waiting for it to fail. But the Hong Kong people are resourceful and will take any challenge head on. There is no failure.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), established under the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Constitution, has maintained the previous capitalist system and way of life. Its common law system continues to operate, and it enjoys the free flow of people, capital, data, goods and more. The vibrancy and prosperity of the central government has always been Hong Kong's strongest backing.
Hong Kong’s 29th birthday under the PRC guidance, coincides with the 105th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China. Naturally there have been celebrations all round, and justifiably so. Both Hong Kong and the central government are proud of what they have achieved. And both, particularly in the past year have taken top ranking as the preferred place in the world to trust and to do business.
Chief Executive John Lee, at a celebratory function on July 1 summed it up with: “Hong Kong, the Pearl of the Orient, will ride the wave of flourishing national development and sail with the wind, steering towards a brighter and more prosperous future!”
And the future is being mapped out in Hong Kong’s first five-year plan, currently under consultation with the public. The plan, a road map for future leaders to follow, will include a futuristic block of land, one third of Hong Kong’s total, to house high tech innovative research and development facilities with university, hospital and new town ancillary services. This Northern Metropolis straddles the river that acts as the boundary between Hong Kong and neighboring Shenzhen, with bridges linking the two; further proof that Hong Kong is an integral part of China.
