Mainland No 3 official, CY Leung hold private meeting in Beijing
The chief secretary also dodged questions about whether she will resign to run for top job
On Thursday afternoon, just across Chang’an Avenue, Lam paid a visit to the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City to prepare for a press conference that she is to host Friday on the handover
anniversary events.
Lam, who is to go on holiday starting Saturday, did not answer media questions on whether she would meet any central government officials to discuss her election plans while on leave.
In a related development, a Lingnan University poll commissioned by NowTV was released on Thursday showing that public support for Lam as a chief executive candidate surged to 20 per cent, or a 12-point jump from before Leung’s announcement.
announcing his widely expected bid for the chief executive’s job.
Leung will meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang on Friday, his first meeting with state leaders since announcing his retirement.
Meanwhile, the central government has received the highest rating of trust among Hongkongers since Leung was elected in March 2012, according to the latest University of Hong Kong public opinion poll.
The poll – conducted between December 12 and 15 – found the level of trust at 38.9 per cent, the highest since March 2011. That compared with 38.6 per cent around the time Leung was elected.
“This shows that Hongkongers generally do not believe in Leung’s version that he chose not to seek re-election due to family reasons,” Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a political scientist at Chinese University, said. “They consider it as Beijing’s removal of the leader, which reflects the public mood.”
The poll also recorded Hongkongers’ distrust of the Beijing government dropping nearly 10 points to 37.3 per cent, compared with the last poll in August. Subtracting the level of distrust from the level of trust, the “net trust” rating is 1.6 points, which is up 18.5 percentage points and marks the third-biggest increase since the 1997 handover.
Additional reporting by Naomi Ng and Oliver Chou