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Exclusive | Delay to Hong Kong leader’s annual speech shows policy direction ‘has shifted to Beijing’
- Chief Executive Carrie Lam caught the public and even some ministers off guard when she postponed her address to next month
- She cited the need to attend meetings on regional development in Beijing, but some observers say the era of Hong Kong charting its own direction is over
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Even top government officials were in the dark until the last hour before Hong Kong’s leader announced on Monday that she would delay her policy address until next month, it has emerged.
The key annual speech by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, slated for Wednesday, had been anticipated as a test of how she would offer solutions for a city rocked by the most tumultuous months in its history.
How would the government rebuild trust after months of anti-government riots, reassure residents over the wisdom of a deeply unpopular national security law, pull the economy out of deep recession and chart a path through a possible fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic? The address was easily the most important one of her political career so far.
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But at 9.44am, the Information Services Department sent out a brief alert notifying the media that the leader would make an announcement at 11.30am. When Lam appeared, she announced her speech would be delayed as she had meetings in Beijing.
Now the central government no longer bothers to pay the same level of respect for Lam
“I was just notified by the central government inviting me to go to Beijing to attend meetings later this month,” she told reporters.
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