Son of Hong Kong’s richest man among CPPCC heavyweights pledging support for Carrie Lam

One of tycoon Li Ka-shing’s sons and a financier of John Tsang Chun-wah’s chief executive campaign have thrown their weight behind the popular underdog’s arch-rival, front runner Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

A group of 51 Election Committee members under the subsector for delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, including CK Hutchison deputy chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, pledged support on Wednesday for the former chief secretary.

The CPPCC group also included Marjorie Yang Mun-tak, a shirt-making tycoon and friend of the elder Li who was one of Tsang’s few financial backers, as reported earlier by the Post. Neither of them, however, attended a meeting between Lam and about 30 CPPCC electors on Wednesday.

“We unanimously consider Carrie Lam to be the candidate most suitable to become the next chief executive,” Ambrose Lau Hon-chuen, convenor of the CPPCC group, said afterwards.

The Li family, as well as the Kwoks of Sun Hung Kai Properties, had stayed at arm’s length from Lam’s campaign, shying away from her election rally or her advisory teams.

In an interview with the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper, Tsang said he had not gained encouragement from Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man, before he made the decision to run for the city’s highest office.