Paul Chan ignores scandal and talks of trees instead

The city's scandal-hit development secretary has, for the second week in a row, studiously ignored the controversy surrounding him in his weekly blog.

In yesterday's entry, Paul Chan Mo-po talked about the government's register of old and valuable trees, without mentioning the Development Bureau's controversial plan to turn Kwu Tung - where his family has been found to own land - into a new town.

The project also drew criticism when Chan's political assistant, Henry Ho Kin-chung, resigned after his family was found to own factories in Kwu Tung.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, meanwhile, made a low-profile update to the interest disclosure rules amid the controversy, broadening their scope to include family members and close friends.

But Chan, who has stubbornly resisted calls for him to quit, addressed none of these issues.

Instead he wrote a 1,350-word blog recapping the bureau's efforts to protect valuable trees - much of those efforts being his predecessor's achievements.