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The Hong Kong Palace Museum is a planned museum exhibiting artifacts of Beijing's Palace Museum in Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD). Construction is planned to begin in 2017, with the museum scheduled for completion by 2022.

The decision to construct the Museum, however, has generated much controversy and criticism from the civil society, largely due to the Hong Kong government's failure to conduct public consultation exercise beforehand. The government subsequently launched a six-week consultation process where, instead of collecting views on whether the museum should be constructed, the public was merely invited to provide views on the Museum's design and operation with a short questionnaire.

Description
The 328000 sqft building will be designed by Hong Kong architecture firm Rocco Design Architects, who was directly appointed. It will comprise two exhibition halls, activity rooms, a 400-seat theatre, a gift shop and a restaurant. It will be built on the site of the West Kowloon Nursery Park.

The Museum will display artifacts borrowed from the Palace Museum in Beijing, some of which have never been displayed previously.

Conception
Then Chief Secretary Carrie Lam stated that the idea of the museum was conceived during an event in Beijing in September 2015. She said that she asked the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust about funding the $3.5 billion project in December 2015, and that the request was approved by their board of directors in October 2016.

Announcement
News of the museum was made public in a surprise announcement on 23 December 2016. On that day Chief Secretary Carrie Lam signed a cooperation agreement with the Palace Museum in Beijing. The signing was witnessed by then Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Chinese culture minister Luo Shugang. Leung commented, "This is the best and greatest gift to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland", referring to the 2017 commemoration of the Handover.

The new museum will display relics lent from the Forbidden City on a long-term basis. It will be managed by a subsidiary of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA). The cost of construction is planned to be covered by a $3.5 billion donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The funding arrangement circumvents the need for the government to seek funding from the Legislative Council.

Reaction and responses from different stakeholders
The announcement was controversial. Critics complained of the lack of public consultation. Others view the museum as an effort to increase Beijing's influence in Hong Kong and as a "political scheme" to foment patriotism. This follows a year of political turmoil in Hong Kong surrounding Beijing's encroachment on the territory's rights and freedoms, including civil unrest in Mong Kok, government disqualification of certain candidates prior to the Legislative Council election, demonstrations in front of the Liaison Office in Sai Wan, and the ousting of democratically elected pro-independence legislators.

Panel Members
Ada Wong, who sits on the consultation panel of the WKCDA, said that the panel received no notification prior to the announcement of the new museum. She questioned the secrecy surrounding the project, asking: "If it is a good proposal, why didn’t they communicate with us sooner? [...] The government should tell us why it chose to inform Hong Kong people in this manner. It should explain why it didn’t begin the consultation process sooner, whether West Kowloon is the best site, and who will lead the project." She said she would not oppose the museum, but suggested that its content should be presented from a Hong Kong perspective. Legislator James To said that the opacity of the project planning was "absolutely inappropriate" and undermined Hong Kong's autonomy.

Scholars
Town planner Camille Lam criticised the direct appointment of Rocco Yim as architect without any design competition, as had been done with the M+ Museum, or open tender, as is common practice for other public buildings. She said that the public should be consulted as the government was changing the established plan for the WKCD, which was drawn up with extensive public consultation.

Although exhibition was held at City Gallery to inform the public about the details of the project, it only consists of six double-sided display boards with a brief overview. It subsequently drew criticisms for not being informative enough. Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan said that the display boards told nothing about the size and proportion breakdown of the facilities. No helper was stationed to walk the visitors through the exhibit in person. She described the consultation process as ‘hastily thrown together’. Retired High Court judge William Waung, a Maritime Museum board member, commented that the display was “very bad” and there was no consultation practice at all. He said “This is not really a public consultation because a public consultation is [an exercise in which officials say] ‘if residents oppose it, we won’t do it’. But is there such a choice here?”

Legal expert Johannes Chan point out that a legal grey area existed under the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority Ordinance. It stated that the public should be consulted on matters of the facilities, including the operation and development. He said it was questionable whether every project requires pubic consultation.

Civil Society Groups
The group Articipants, which includes professionals from the drama, music and film industries, handed in more than 600 signatures to the consultation panel through an online petition in less than five days.

On the other hand, a group called the Alliance in Support of Hong Kong Palace Museum was formed to support the idea. The convenor, Fok kin-man, stated that the lack of consultation was so that the government could give the Hong Kong people a pleasant surprise.

Responses from Carrie Lam
Regarding the direct appointment of Rocco Yim, Lam admitted that it was her “judgment and decision” to engage Yim to design the museum. But she denied having committed procedural impropriety. She claimed that “procurement policies of many governmental departments and organizations” give flexibility for direct appointment under special circumstances. The appointment of Yim as lead consultant was approved at a special board meeting and formally made by the authority’s CEO Duncan Pescod. She believed Yim is knowledgeable about the West Kowloon Cultural District and has experience in building large museums. She said “We conceive policy initiatives from time to time… and most of these exercises are done in a confidential manner until we are ready to disclose and announce, and then we listen to public opinion. That is the very usual way of doing government work.’ Carrie Lam gave three reasons to respond to the criticisms regarding the lack of consultation. First, she said that the museum is located at West Kowloon Cultural District, which is already planned as cultural-use land. Therefore, there is no need for public consultation for the use of land. Second, West Kowloon Cultural District is managed by the statutory organization – West Kowloon Cultural District Board, but not the government. She admitted that her identity of Chief Secretary and the chief of the board would be confusing. However, she stressed that this project had gained the approval from the board according to the procedures. Third, she explained that there were many parties and stakeholders involved in the preparation process, including those form the central government, so it is hard to conduct public consultation. She said that if public consultation was started in earlier stage and one of the steps cannot gain public agreement, it will lead to an embarrassing situation She took the example of 2007 where the China government gave two pandas to Hong Kong to illustrate that the government at that time didn't consult the public either. She believed the present case is the same situation.