Hong Kong's round in the Formula E canceled by local bureaucracy

There was a little bit of difference between the original calendar announced by Formula E, and the most recent calendar.  Namely: Hong Kong was not to have a Formula E date, and was replaced by a date in Rio de Janeiro.

When the calendar was announced, I went "ho hum" because whatever places they (Formula E) choose for their races is up to them.  But a reporter for China Daily was not satisfied with that, and dug into why Formula E was not coming to the place where he lived.

The reason he came up with is government bureaucrats afraid the Formula E race would block access to the Government Secretariat and PLA building.

A track built on Lung Wo Road was preferred, because it would have been a better track.  However that route was rejected by the government for the aforementioned reason.  Instead a track in the Central Harborfront area was chosen, but ultimately rejected by the FIA after 10 redesigns.

What the China Daily reporter wrote is:

The principal reason for this is bureaucracy. Any proposals, whether urgent or not, or however beneficial to Hong Kong, are required to undergo all sorts of departmental examinations and approval - usually without exception. Because of the deteriorating political environment, different departments want to avoid criticism by taking on less projects. As a result, the government is not flexible enough to host events like Formula E.