City Beat | Can Carrie Lam make an entrance if CY Leung refuses to go gentle into that good night?

What was that again about Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying running a sunset government? It seems to be quite the opposite, looking at his recent moves.

In fact he seems more proactive and combative than ever, especially in trading barbs with his enemies from the pan-democratic camp. They are seeking to impeach him over accusations that he secretly interfered in a Legislative Council select committee investigation into his failure to declare the HK$50 million he was paid by Australian engineering firm UGL before taking up office five years ago.

It’s not only sparring with the pan-democrats that Leung has been busy with. He took his ministers on a tour of the Greater Bay Area in Guangdong for future cooperation. He led a big delegation to the “Belt and Road Initiative” forum in Beijing to promote Hong Kong as a “super connector” for President Xi Jinping’s grand pet project to build a new Silk Road. And he got started on his novel, yet controversial, idea of building public housing on the fringes of country parks.

Then, with just over a month left on the job, his government rolled out a new round of cooling measures last week, aimed at curbing speculation that has been fanning runaway property prices. He even managed to make a day trip to Beijing last Thursday to pay his last respects to former vice premier Qian Qichen, whose funeral was attended by Xi and many other state leaders.