Hong Kong chief executive election 2022: John Lee vows to make public housing a priority as he goes on first community visits of campaign
- Housing is ‘key’ to solving many of the city’s issues, Beijing-endorsed candidate says after closed-door visits
- Lee also says Hong Kong’s success hinges on diversity and welcomes suggestions to help ethnic minorities integrate with society
Hong Kong’s sole chief executive candidate John Lee Ka-chiu vowed on Sunday to make public housing supply a policy priority, as he visited grass-roots communities for the first time since launching his bid for the city’s top job.
Without going into details, Lee pledged to expedite the acquisition of land and to compress building programmes, noting that housing was a deep-rooted problem linked to poverty and resource allocation.
With two weeks to the May 8 leadership poll, Lee visited two households on Sunday and also met ethnic minority representatives, interactions that were mostly closed-door affairs carefully choreographed by his campaign office.
Insiders said Lee’s team was in full swing to draft his election platform, with a release set for Friday at the earliest and the visits were to give him a chance to meet the wider public.
Following an earlier Post report, several TV stations said on their websites an hour-long “question and answer session of the 2022 chief executive election” would be held at 8.30pm on Saturday.
Sources previously told the Post a televised policy forum, election rally and meetings with youth groups were being planned for the final week of his campaign. During the forum, Lee is expected to interact with a group of journalists, modelling the annual TV programmes held by the city leader and financial secretary following their respective policy address and budget announcement.
Analysts said that while Lee’s visit on Sunday was carefully curated, it was a positive beginning as the former security chief sought to revamp his public image.