Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam reaches out to city’s districts to ‘feel people’s pulse’ and promise better livelihood options
- Lam visits Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long and Tai Wai to talk to residents and inspect the damage to a police station vandalised by protesters
- Some welcome her impromptu move; others denounce it as a publicity stunt, saying she kept her schedule private to avoid demonstrations
In a press release issued after the visit, she pledged to roll out more measures to improve people’s livelihood in her upcoming policy speech in October.
Without any prior notice, Lam was seen in Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long and Tai Wai on Wednesday afternoon. Her move was met with mixed responses – some welcomed the attempt to reach out, while others called it a publicity stunt.
Images circulated online showed Lam talking to business operators and shoppers in Tai Wai Market. She also set foot in a park in Tin Shui Wai.
Her unexpected public appearance with health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee was not officially confirmed until her office published a press release in the evening.
The release said Lam had checked out a site in Tin Shui Wai earmarked for a government-run wet market. Local residents had earlier complained there was no marketplace selling cheap groceries. Later, the chief executive also inspected improvement works at a market in Tai Wai.
Before going to Tai Wai, she also visited Tin Shui Wai Police Station, which was vandalised by extradition bill protesters earlier this week, to see the extent of the damage and meet the officers on site.
She was quoted as saying: “I will put forward more measures to improve people’s livelihood in the upcoming 2019 Policy Address. A public consultation on the policy address is under way and people are welcome to give their views.”
The press release mentioned that a comprehensive review of the operation of public markets was a highlight of Lam’s maiden policy address in 2017.
Lam’s unexpected public appearance with health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee was not officially confirmed until her office published a press release in the evening
Sha Tin district councillor Li Sai-hung, of the opposition party Neo Democrats, said he only learned of Lam’s arrival from stall operators at the Tai Wai market.
“I was told she arrived around 1pm,” he said. “That was a quiet time in the market. Perhaps she chose the time to avoid meeting too many people.”
Li said the district council was not told about Lam’s visit.
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“The stall operators said there was no warm welcome,” Li said. “Lam briefly chatted with them, asked about their business, and left.”
Fellow Sha Tin district councillor Tung Kin-lei, of the pro-government Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, also said councillors in his camp were not told about the visit in advance.
“Perhaps she wanted to feel the real pulse of the people,” Tung said.
Zachary Wong Wai-yin, a Yuen Long district councillor, said he learned from local residents that Lam had visited Tin Sau Bazaar in Tin Shui Wai, a pet project pushed by her government to provide a shopping spot for the low-income neighbourhood.
“I heard her visit was met with lukewarm response,” Wong said.
Wong said he felt Lam’s surprise visit “was only a publicity stunt to show that she still cared about people’s livelihood”.
He added: “If she really cared, she would have come to talk to the elected representatives.”
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Political observer Ivan Choy Chi-keung said Lam’s visits to the communities could be seen as a “business as usual” message that she wanted to deliver after the central government showed its hardline stance on the recent anti-government protests.
Choy said Lam might have been so worried about coming across protesters in her way that she chose not to disclose her schedule in advance.
“Lam didn’t show up earlier as she was not sure which way to go,” said Choy, adding that she had surfaced after Beijing spelled out its stance on the political crisis. “Her visits will not alleviate the current situation.”
