The crucial issue for many is how the chief executive-elect will navigate her relationship with Beijing’s liaison office in the city while heeding popular views
As vows to lead with a “new style of governance”, political watchers are wondering how she will recalibrate the relationship between the chief executive and the mainland. While few dispute that the chief executive is ultimately answerable to the central government, the more immediate question is whether she can pursue the principle of “one country, two systems” without shifting further towards “one country”. The starting point, for many, is how she will navigate her relationship with Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong. Analysts in the city and across the border think it will not be easy for Lam, who was elected Hong Kong’s next leader on Sunday, given how assiduously the liaison office had gone out of its way to help her win office. But some point out she can reshape the relationship and assert her authority. Although Lam framed her victory as the fruit of her own labour and that of her team, it is an open secret that the 777 votes she won from Election Committee members were partly the result of behind-the-scenes lobbying by the liaison office. As first reported by the state leader Zhang Dejiang visited Shenzhen to tell the pro-establishment camp and Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing on another occasion that Lam was Beijing’s preferred choice. Such blessing from Beijing had “structurally determined” the power base of the new leader, who would find it difficult to maintain distance from the liaison office, Chinese University political scientist Ma Ngok said. “Lam has no other patronage. The business sector and some tycoons turned to her from her rival because of Beijing,” he said. “It’s not easy for her to shake off the label CY 2.0.” Lam was given the nickname by opponents who were wary she would follow the hardline approach of unpopular incumbent Leung Chun-ying, who was perceived as being too close to the liaison office. Leung got off on the wrong foot with the public when he chose to visit the office the day after he was elected in 2012.
