Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam blasts UK group’s ‘unfounded and unfair’ report on city

Chief executive takes ‘great exception’ to report compiled by British peer Paddy Ashdown that casts doubts on rule of law and China’s influence over city

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Carrie Lam meets the press ahead of the Executive Council meeting. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 12:27pm, 16 Jan 2018Updated: 11:33pm, 16 Jan 2018

Hong Kong’s leader hit back on Tuesday at a British concern group for “interfering” in the city’s internal affairs with “unfounded and unfair” criticism.

And in a first, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor revealed aspects of her working relationship with Beijing’s liaison office in the city, saying she had taken “a slightly more pragmatic” approach – but only invited officials to discuss issues if there was a “mainland [Chinese] angle”.

The 10-page Hong Kong Watch report, compiled by British peer Paddy Ashdown, suggested that recent events had raised concerns about the city’s rule of law, including a constitutionally contentious joint-checkpoint plan that would grant mainland officers almost full jurisdiction over part of the West Kowloon terminus of the cross-border rail link due to open later this year.

Paddy Ashdown visited Hong Kong in November. Photo: Nora Tam

“I take great exception to the comments and conclusion in that report. Those comments are totally unfounded and unfair,” Lam said.

“To attack the rule of law in Hong Kong and to allege that China, and this is a word they use, that China continues to ‘erode Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms, thereby breaching an international treaty’, is totally unfounded. We have seen no evidence of that. Quite the contrary, the central government has been fully backing Hong Kong and supporting Hong Kong in our economic and social development.”

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