Watch out CY: finance chief John Tsang leaves door open for tilt at top job?
Quizzed over bid to become chief executive, John Tsang says he has ‘no such plan at present’
Hong Kong’s finance chief, John Tsang Chun-wah, has maintained an equivocal line about whether he will run for the city’s top job next year, saying he had “no such plan at present” in a rare TV interview aired yesterday.
The financial secretary, who rates highly in public opinion polls, is seen by pundits as posing one of the strongest possible threats to incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.
Tsang, who was interviewed on Friday, spoke a day after the government announced the upcoming visit of Zhang Dejiang, the third highest ranking official in China’s top political body, the Politburo standing committee.
Zhang will be in Hong Kong next month, an event that pundits say could provide the city – and especially those interested in the top job – with Beijing’s messages on local politics.
Leung has not yet announced whether he would seek re-election in the poll that will be held in March.
Tsang, who turns 65 next week, was tipped as a potential dark horse candidate after Chinese President Xi Jinping shook his hand – and no one else’s – during the opening ceremony of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank last Junein June last year, not long after the end of the Occupy protests.
“It’s fine even if I’m not treated as a horse,” he said in the interview with Now TV.
But he stopped short of declining the candidacy altogether. Asked if he had plans to seek nominations, Tsang first replied: “No. We will focus on how to best deliver our work at present, because the work is quite difficult.”
He then moved on to the relief measures he proposed in the budget. Asked again if he would throw his hat in the ring, Tsang said: “I have no such plan. I have no such plan at present.”
That is the same response as what he had said on multiple occasions before.
“Tsang was not giving a definitive no,” Wong Wing-ping, a former civil service minister, said. “He actually didn’t rule out any possibilities.”
In an unprecedented show of approval throughout Leung’s administration, the Democratic Party said it would back Tsang’s budget this year that did not shy away from sensitive issues like localism.
Localism, he said on Now TV, must be treated separately from separatism.
On social media front, Tsang scored thousands of likes for each of his most recent Facebook posts – a stark contrast to the thousands of “angry” buttons for Leung’s.
“Likes or no likes are accurate [assessment] of what the public like or resist,” he said in the interview.
Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a political scientist at the Chinese University, said Tsang’s equivocality showed his intention to make adjustments according to situations.
“If Tsang didn’t have a plan at present, maybe he would have it tomorrow,” he said.
Choy noted that Zhang could be gathering views on the election during his visit next month, the first by a state leader since Leung came to office in 2012.
But Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing believed Zhang would stick to the theme of his visit, which is the belt and road initiative.
He added that it would be a good chance for Zhang to meet pan-democrats.
