Beijing has last word in Hong Kong leadership race, delegates told
NPC chairman lists criteria for city’s next leader and says central government’s power to appoint the chief executive is not a ‘rubber stamp’
With three weeks to go before the chief executive election, the state leader who oversees Hong Kong affairs has emphasised Beijing enjoys a “substantive and constitutional” power to appoint the city’s leader.
During a meeting with delegates from Hong Kong and Macau to the nation’s top advisory body in Beijing on Saturday, National People’s Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang listed Beijing’s four criteria for the next chief executive: he or she must “love the country and love Hong Kong”, be trusted by Beijing, be capable of governing, and be supported by the Hong Kong people.
Zhang, the Communist Party’s third-ranking leader, was quoted by Hong Kong delegates as saying that he hoped to see an “honourable fight” in the run-up to the race. He stopped short of naming candidates or confirming whether front runner Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was the central government’s preferred choice.
But according to a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference standing committee, Chan Wing-kee, the state leader said: “Beijing’s standards for the chief executive are much higher. It is not like the requirements for a head of policy bureau.
“Zhang said the chief executive has an important status.”