Beijing official ‘comforted tearful Regina Ip with text’ after Hong Kong reform vote fiasco
Regina Ip revealed that she received a text message from a Beijing official “to comfort her” after she sobbed during a radio show as she lamented her camp’s bungled vote on Hong Kong electoral reform.
Pro-establishment heavyweight Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee revealed that she received a text message from a Beijing official “to comfort her” after she sobbed during a radio show last Friday as she lamented her camp’s bungled vote on electoral reform.
On the sidelines of a Legislative Council meeting this morning, the New People’s Party chairwoman was asked whether Beijing demanded accountability from pro-establishment lawmakers in the aftermath of their voting fiasco last Thursday.
Dismissing the suggestion, Ip said: “[Beijing officials] know that this blunder did not mean that we, in principle, went against the government’s policy and deliberately walked out from the vote. It was only a problem with the coordination, so there was completely no [demand for] accountability [from the central government], and there was [at least one] Beijing official who comforted me … with a text.”
But Ip refused to name the official, and did not say exactly how many officials contacted her on the matter.
She also confirmed that Zhang Xiaoming, director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, will host a dinner on Thursday to “thank pro-establishment lawmakers for their support” on the political reform in the last 20 months.
Last Thursday, seconds before the historic vote on the Beijing-decreed reform package was due to take place, pro-establishment lawmakers Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung and Ip Kwok-him suddenly stood up and ushered a total of 31 lawmakers out of the chamber.