Michael "Mike" Hanson (born c. 1930s–1940s, zh, 韓新) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

press secretary, mostly remembered as the

spin doctor In public relations and politics, spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through knowingly providing a biased interpretation of an event or campaigning to influence public opinion about some organization or public figure. While traditional publi ...

and the head of

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Chris Patten's

war room A command center (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command for some purpose. While frequently considered to be a military facility, these can be used in many other cases by governments or businesses. ...

from 1992 to 1994. He was responsible for promoting Patten's controversial

1994 Hong Kong electoral reform File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

, which became a political storm that eventually hampered a smooth

handover of Hong Kong Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the British Hong Kong, former colony. Hong Kong was establ ...

to China. Hanson is also remembered by the public and the media for being the first official to introduce political PR into the government and for being the government's refugee co-ordinator of Vietnamese asylum seekers in Hong Kong. Hanson was the head of

political public relations Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

of the

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

government (1991 - October 1994). In addition, he took the role as the personal press secretary of

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, (; born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life pe ...

(1992 - October 1994), the last Governor of British Hong Kong.

Early career in British civil service

Hanson born in a working-class background of a northern English coal-mining family. Hanson joined

Her Majesty's Civil Service His Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as His Majesty's Civil Service, the Home Civil Service, or colloquially as the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, whic ...

in 1974 serving in HM Customs and Excise, the parliamentary commissioner's office and on secondment, via the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

, to the

Government. He was sent to Hong Kong from the 1980s to the 1990s. After returning to the UK Hanson became director general, benefits and credits at HM Revenue & Customs.Departmental Report 2008
''HM Revenue & Customs''.

Political PR in Hong Kong government

In British Hong Kong, Hanson held the roles of head of government property agency, refugee co-ordinator (handling the Vietnamese boat people between 1989 – 1991), information co-ordinator (1991 - October 1994) and personal press secretary (July 1992 - October 1994) of

, the last

Governor of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...

. His posting to information co-ordinator came in the wake of September

1991 Hong Kong legislative election The 1991 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held for members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). The election of the members of Functional constituency (Hong Kong), functional constituencies was held on 12 September 1991 and th ...

, the first ever

direct election Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they desire to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are cho ...

held. The British Hong Kong government recognized a political PR is needed to respond to the new heavily-mandated Legislative Council. During his tenure, the Information Co-ordinator's Office developed a firm grip of the Secretariat Press Office, a division of the Government Information Services (GIS) responsible for press statements. The GIS is traditionally a neutral bureaucratic news service. Hanson's political PR approach of handling governor's publicity is first of its kind in Hong Kong, though reflected well in public, it created a tension with GIS, headed by career bureaucrat Irene Yau Lee Che-yun. His revolutionized approach of bringing political PR into his position set a precedent. After

to China, Hong Kong mayors kept it as a permanent political PR position.

1994 electoral reform

When

took governorship in July 1992, Hanson became his personal press secretary in addition to his role as the information co-ordinator. He is described as the

and the head of

for promoting Chris Patten's his flagship and controversial

, which was welcomed by pro-democracy legislators while heavily criticized by the diplomat-

sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

s of the U.K. Foreign Office and the Hong Kong pro-Beijing camp (politicians, tycoons and media) for breaching the Seven Hurd-Qian letters between the two nations' foreign ministers in 1990 and derailing the

to China set in 1997. Later the documentary is compiled into a book, In the end, he secured a narrow passage of the bill after surviving

Allen Lee Allen Lee Peng-fei, CBE, JP (; 24 April 194015 May 2020) was a Hong Kong industrialist, politician and political commentator. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, serving from 1978 to 1997 and was the Senior Member of th ...

's hostile amendment by one vote, 29 to 28 votes. He left both roles in October 1994, with Kevin McGlynn being his successor. Hanson is also involved in the launching of ''

Eastern Express The Eastern Express ( tr, Doğu Ekspresi) is an overnight passenger train operated by the Turkish State Railways. The train runs from Ankara Railway Station to Kars Railway Station in Kars. The train was the first overnight service east of Ank ...

'' newspaper in 1994, which has been suggested as leaning to

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. Reprinted as

After leaving civil service

*Advisory partner,

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

LLP, June 2009. Approved by ACOBA.Eleventh Report 2009-2010
''Advisory Committee on Business Appointments'', page 28 *Advisor, Mace Group, January 2010. Given "unconditional approval" by ACOBA. From 2014, he becomes the CEO of Mace Foundation.

Notes

References

20th-century births Year of birth uncertain Living people History of Hong Kong {{more cats, date=November 2020