Opinion | Hong Kong is temporarily without a chief secretary – here’s why it matters

While Beijing holds off filling the spot vacated by John Lee, Carrie Lam has played down the delay by saying the government can manage

But the role is important, with most former chief secretaries going on to become chief executive – could that be why Beijing is taking its time?

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Former chief secretary John Lee seen on April 18. Following Lee’s resignation to make himself eligible to run for chief executive, the role of the city’s No 2 has been left vacant. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 6:45am, 25 Apr 2022

With no acting chief secretary appointed to replace John Lee Ka-chiu – who resigned from the city’s No 2 position to be the sole candidate running in the chief executive elections – an interesting discussion has been sparked over whether the position is dispensable.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has said waiting to fill the spot until the new leadership takes over would have little impact on the government’s work. She, of course, was once chief secretary herself. It’s hard to believe she really feels that way.

The decision by Beijing to leave the seat vacant has a lot of political observers scratching their heads, especially since the administration has described the office holder as “one of the most important officials within the government”.

Some are saying that Lam’s recommendation for acting chief secretary didn’t make Beijing’s cut. Whatever the reason, Lam has been left in a peculiar position.

She certainly has the job experience to take on some of the chief secretary’s duties herself. Indeed, perhaps a lame-duck chief executive is best suited to the role of coordinating policy formulation and implementation across bureaus in the interim, especially as the two roles are closely connected.

Former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was relegated to head a public hygiene campaign following the Sars outbreak when he was chief secretary in 2003. As captain of Team Clean, Tsang had to coordinate across departments, which did fit the job description, but he was ridiculed and many suspected he had been sidelined. He became chief executive nonetheless.