The housing minister, Eva Cheng, does not want to stay in government after the end of her term in June.
Cheng said yesterday she had discussed it with her family and respected their wishes. She is the second top official to express an intention to leave, after the chief secretary, Stephen Lam Sui-lung.
Her decision comes after persistent talk of tension between her and Secretary for Development Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who is tipped to be the next chief secretary. Cheng did not say if the chief executive-elect, Leung Chun-ying, had offered to retain her.
'Everyone has different duties and positions in different times,' Cheng said, quoting a line from a classic Chinese poem: 'Cloud is in the blue sky, water is in the bottle. It's just like water, sometimes it's in the sky, sometimes it's in a bottle. We can think about what is the right thing to do at different times.'
Cheng had indicated as early as October last year that she might quit.
Reports have circulated widely among officials that Cheng clashed with Lam over their bureaus' different priorities, with Cheng focusing on meeting the construction target for public housing and Lam allocating land for different uses.