Financial Secretary Paul Chan should embrace legislative scrutiny of the city's budget, rather than dismiss it. While the budget passed smoothly, past financial secretaries faced significant political pressure. Chan's predecessors dealt with different challenges, including accusations of government cash hoarding.

Congratulations to Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po for getting the city’s budget to sail through the Legislative Council. It wasn’t always such smooth sailing and Chan would do well to acknowledge as much. When Chan was first given the keys to the city’s coffers, they were full. Successive financial secretaries faced political pressure of a very different kind. There weren’t many issues that opposing parties saw eye to eye on. However, accusing the government of hoarding cash and not giving....