Hong Kong leader appoints two new cabinet members just four months from leadership race

Hong Kong’s leader has appointed two pro-establishment lawmakers to his cabinet, just four months before the next chief executive election, in what is seen as an attempt to consolidate his political support base, improve relations with the legislature and lay the groundwork for seeking a second term.

Political commentators saw Leung Chun-ying’s unexpected move on Friday as a message to Beijing and Hongkongers that he can forge a working alliance with a fractured pro-establishment camp, including those who have been openly hostile towards him.

Leung issued a statement on Friday afternoon announcing the appointment of Liberal Party chairman Tommy Cheung Yu-yan and Martin Liao Cheung-kong, convenor of the Legislative Council’s pro-establishment camp, as executive councillors, with immediate effect. The chief executive did not explain why he was expanding his cabinet so close to the leadership election next March, and with seven months remaining in his five-year term.

“I am confident that they will offer valuable ­advice and effectively fulfil the role of assisting ­policymaking after joining Exco,” Leung said.

A government source said the chief executive had been planning to appoint Cheung and Liao shortly after the Legco elections in early September. “The idea came much earlier than the chief executive’s meeting with President Xi Jinping in Lima on Monday,” the source said.

The additions bring the number of Exco’s ­non- ­official members to 16, including representatives from all the major pro-establishment groups in ­Legco.