Amid Teresa Cheng’s illegal structures scandal, Hong Kong faces a growing crisis of confidence

Over the past week, the Hong Kong public has been taken on quite a ride. Fortunately, this isn’t one hasn’t driven droves of angry and aggrieved people onto the streets, to stop traffic, set up tents and throw bricks (at least not yet).

The appointment of Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah to succeed Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung as Hong Kong’s new secretary for justice should have been a piece of cake. Yuen has been involved in pretty much every highly politically charged issue, and Cheng should have been a shoo-in for the administration in terms of improving its public image and granting it a reprieve.

But if the Lam administration thinks this nightmare will soon be over, they are deluding themselves. The biggest public relations blunder so far of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s tenure makes one wonder whether the government has adequate reality-check measures in place.

Naturally, the uncovering of the illegal structures at Cheng’s residence, her marital status, her spouse’s identity and her husband’s illegal structures at his residence (next to hers) made for an entertaining political saga. To Cheng’s credit, she did report her newly found problems to the chief executive after the Buildings Department asked to enter her property to investigate unauthorised structures on the premises. But this immediately shed light not only on Cheng’s, but the administration’s insensitivity. After Henry Tang Ying-yen’s underground palace became an explosive issue during his chief executive campaign, only outright incompetence explains why checking for illegal structures is not part of the official vetting process.