No reason for Beijing to mistrust me, Hong Kong leadership contender John Tsang says, as he takes aim at arch-rival

Former financial secretary claims he would be better than Carrie Lam at restoring harmony in the divided city

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Former Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah meet the media in Wan Chai. 26JAN17 SCMP / Sam Tsang

Published: 10:30pm, 26 Jan 2017Updated: 9:08am, 27 Jan 2017

One of the more popular contenders for Hong Kong’s highest office, John Tsang Chun-wah, has said there is no reason for Beijing to mistrust him as he criticised arch-rival Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor for the first time by questioning her ability to bring social harmony to the city.

In a surprise move on Thursday, former finance minister Tsang also promised that if he won the chief executive election in March, he would scrap a controversial plan to put all primary school students through a new competence exam, after it was rejected by parents as a repackaging of an unpopular test that put too much pressure on children.

“We can come up with a new mechanism of random sampling ... to make sure schools and parents would not have the incentive to train their children,” Tsang said.

Former chief secretary Carrie Lam. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Lam, who was a rank higher as chief secretary, and Tsang announced they would run for the top job after Beijing approved both of their resignations on January 16. Lam waited four days for the approval while Tsang had to wait for more than a month – prompting speculation that he was not the preferred candidate.

“There is no reason for me to believe that the central government does not trust me,” Tsang told the media on Thursday. “I took up my first principal official role in 1999, I headed two policy bureaus ... and was the financial chief for nine and a half years.”

Tsang also hit out at Lam directly, saying he would be a better leader to restore harmony in a politically and socially divided city.

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