My Take | Mainland sweeteners likely for city in policy address
- Carrie Lam paid her visit to Beijing and Guangdong like a supplicant for mainland beneficence
But some critics have gone on to say Beijing has lost confidence in her and cast doubt on her ability to secure significant initiatives to support Hong Kong in her policy address to be delivered later this month. Well, by her own repeat admissions, it’s not clear she has much confidence in herself as the city’s leader, so why should her bosses have any in her? It goes without saying.
Beijing’s policy is not about Lam, but the city. The Hong Kong government has long needed mainland support to prop it up, having never been able to stand on its own. That was so for the Tung Chee-hwa administration after the Asian financial crisis and the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, for his successor Donald Tsang Yam-kuen after the global financial collapse, and for Leung Chun-ying after the 2014 anti-government mass protests.
Most likely, her policy address, to be delivered on November 25, will include cross-border niceties for Hong Kong people to improve livelihoods and living standards. These may include making it easier to live and buy homes on the mainland, work across the border and pay less taxes, and perhaps incentives and subsidies for retirement, education and medical services on the mainland.