Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam hits out at US congressmen over Joshua Wong’s Nobel nomination

The chief executive’s remarks from Beijing come hours after her top official said foreign politicians lacked understanding of the local situation

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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam says foreign politicians have apparently used the Nobel Prize as a tool for political intervention. Photo: Simon Song

Published: 2:15pm, 3 Feb 2018Updated: 11:22pm, 3 Feb 2018

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor hit out on Saturday at a group of American congressmen who nominated activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung and two allies for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying that it was “regrettable for foreign politicians to meddle with the city’s affairs”.

Lam’s remarks came hours after her top minister, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said the nomination showed that some politicians overseas lacked understanding of the city’s situation and constitutional status.

He was speaking in his capacity as the acting chief executive, as Lam is on a Beijing trip.

Cheung was the first local official to comment on the matter, after it was revealed on Thursday that a group of 12 US politicians had put forward Wong, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang, as well as the 2014 Occupy campaign – popularly known as the “umbrella movement” – to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

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China’s foreign ministry on Friday urged the congressmen to “stop meddling ” in the country’s internal affairs, while Hong Kong’s pro-establishment legislators warned that the nomination would do more harm than good.

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