Beijing unlikely to stand in way of Hong Kong top job race winner to avoid ‘political storm’: think tank
Vice-chairman of top think tank says none of the three contenders poses threat to national interest
Watch: Carrie Lam submits her nominations for Hong Kong leadership race
The Hong Kong government, meanwhile, denied a report suggesting it could send the ballot papers to mainland officials after the vote for fingerprint analysis, to find out how Election Committee members vote on March 26.
Watch: Carrie Lam presents her manifesto
A source who attended the closed-door meeting with the former chief executive last month said Tung mentioned the former finance chief while talking about the importance of the central government’s trust in the city leader.
On Friday, Professor Lau Siu-kai, vice-chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a think tank, said Beijing cannot “easily” refuse to appoint the winner, lest it spark a “political storm”.
Such a scenario would arise only when “there is an extreme situation where the central government believes a certain person would damage the interest of the nation or the central government or seriously threaten the ‘one country, two systems’ principle,” Lau said in Beijing.
Even if the central government disapproved of the elected candidate, Lau said, a re-election would not lead to a different result as the Election Committee would remain the same. He said he did not envisage any of the candidates damaging the national interest if elected.
Watch: Carrie Lam talks to SCMP about her bid
Also in the capital yesterday, liaison office boss Zhang remained tight-lipped while confronted by Hong Kong journalists for the first time since the latest interference allegations.
Hong Kong’s Registration and Electoral Office issued a statement dismissing an article in the Chinese media alleging that mainland officials had warned Election Committee members that their ballot papers could be inspected for fingerprints to find out whom they voted for.
“The rumour mentioned in the commentary is totally groundless,” it said.
Normal practice is to keep ballot papers for six months and then destroy them.
Additional reporting by Stuart Lau