The crucial issue for many is how the chief executive-elect will navigate her relationship with Beijing\u2019s liaison office in the city while heeding popular views<\/b>
As vows to lead with a \u201cnew style of governance\u201d, 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 \u201cone country, two systems\u201d without shifting further towards \u201cone country\u201d. The starting point, for many, is how she will navigate her relationship with Beijing\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s preferred choice. Such blessing from Beijing had \u201cstructurally determined\u201d 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. \u201cLam has no other patronage. The business sector and some tycoons turned to her from her rival because of Beijing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy for her to shake off the label CY 2.0.\u201d 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. During her campaign, Lam stressed repeatedly she was in a passive position and she had no way to ask the liaison office to stop lobbying \u2013 even as she admitted its intervention was \u201ccounter-productive\u201d. In the press conference she gave after her election victory, she also demonstrated sensitivity when asked if she would visit the office the next day like Leung did. Visiting the agency was only \u201cpart of the protocol\u201d of the chief executive-elect, Lam said, along with visits to other offices including those of the incumbent chief executive, chief justice and Legislative Council president. Yesterday, she visited the latter three and toured several neighbourhoods to thank supporters. She did not visit any mainland offices. Such prioritising was a \u201cclever\u201d move on Lam\u2019s part, said Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies. \u201cPerception matters,\u201d he said. \u201cShe should also avoid being belittled by the liaison office. One would recall how Leung Chun-ying behaved when he made a hospital visit with then deputy director of the liaison office Li Gang after the Lamma ferry tragedy.\u201d He was referring to the incident in 2012, when Leung accompanied Li to the hospital where dozens of victims of the ferry crash were sent. Li spoke about how the office would help while Leung stood aside. Lau also suggested Lam should not, like Leung\u2019s administration, rely on the liaison office in lobbying lawmakers\u2019 support for government bills. He said Leung\u2019s administration had failed to engage their allies in the Legislative Council at an early stage and heed their views for amendments, and in turn, it had to resort to the liaison office for help. These steps by Lam would ensure she gave herself more room to impress upon Hongkongers she could stand on her own in governing the city when it came to protecting the \u201ctwo systems\u201d part of the Hongkong-mainland relationship. Tian Feilong, a law professor with Beihang University in Beijing, agreed Lam had to walk a tight rope. \u201cIt\u2019s the hardest thing for every chief executive to balance Beijing\u2019s requirements and public opinion in Hong Kong, as Beijing is more proactively governing Hong Kong and merging the two economies,\u201d he said. Lam should conduct a transparent consultation for cross-border cooperation projects like the high-speed railway which involve a controversial checkpoint arrangement at the terminal in West Kowloon, where mainland officers could enforce mainland laws, Tian said. New People\u2019s Party lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun, one of those who received calls from the liaison office about backing Lam, struck a more optimistic tone on Lam\u2019s ability to keep a distance from the office. He believed that Beijing\u2019s hand in the election was only due to its need to ensure Lam would win the race, and Beijing would adopt a \u201chands-off\u201d approach towards Hong Kong under the new administration. \u201cIf Beijing wants to keep the hardline approach, why did [incumbent] Leung Chun-ying have to go? Beijing cannot afford Hong Kong to be split further. If a large crowd once again marches on July 1, how can Lam run the new administration?\u201d<\/p>\n