City BeatBeijing is still feeling Hong Kong’s pulse before endorsing a candidate for chief executive
The country’s leaders have bigger issues on their plate at the moment, so the city will just have to be patient
Five years ago this month, the whole town was abuzz over the prospect of a red-hot race for Hong Kong’s top job with the resignations of then chief secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen and Leung Chun-ying, who was convenor of the Executive Council, the highest body of advisers to the chief executive. The excitement was enhanced by the knowledge that Tang was Beijing’s preferred choice but Leung was insisting on running.
Now it’s campaign time again, but there’s been no surprise resignation or declaration yet – only political gossip. The reason is simple: Beijing is still considering whom to endorse.
It’s therefore believed that nothing will come from Beijing before this key plenum, and there have been suggestions that Beijing may even postpone its decision until the end of the year, when the new 1,200-member Election Committee is formed in December to go about choosing the city’s next chief executive.
What’s going on up north is nevertheless revealing, though not directly linked with Hong Kong, including last month’s mass dismissal of 45 national lawmakers in northeastern Liaoning (遼寧) province.
The unprecedented crackdown on provincial election fraud was but another indicator of the determination of President Xi Jinping to maintain a clean pool of local talent. Beijing is due to pick some outstanding local stars for personnel reshuffles at different levels ahead of next year’s party congress, which will be highlighted by changes among the top hierarchy of the Standing Committee members of the Politburo.