GARY CHEUNG GARY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Friday, 24 July, 2015, 11:02am
UPDATED : Friday, 24 July, 2015, 11:02am
Leung Chun-ying met state leaders in Beijing two weeks ago. Photo: David Wong
The state leader overseeing Hong Kong affairs urged Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to unite various sectors in the city during their meeting in Beijing two weeks ago, the South China Morning Post has learned.
However, a mainland Chinese official handling Hong Kong affairs said National People’s Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang’s expression of support for the chief executive should not be seen as backing for Leung’s bid for a second term.
Summing up his two-day trip to Beijing earlier this month, the chief executive said Zhang had “highly affirmed and is very satisfied” with his performanceover the past 20 months on political reform.
Leung also dropped a strong hint he would seek a second term, saying he would make the “greatest efforts” to serve Hong Kong “if there is room and opportunity”.
A person with knowledge of the meeting between Zhang and the chief executive said the state leader reminded Leung to “unite, unite and further unite various sectors” in Hong Kong. The closed-door meeting was held on July 12.
But Zhang did not elaborate on how he expected Leung to achieve that goal.
A week after the chief executive quoted Zhang’s affirmation of his performance, Leung executed his biggest cabinet reshuffle by replacing two ministers.
The sudden departure of Tsang Tak-sing – jailed for two years for distributing “inflammatory leaflets” in the 1967 riots – from his post as home affairs secretary was particularly stunning as his loyalty to Beijing is beyond doubt.
A mainland official handling Hong Kong affairs said it was standard practice for state leaders to express support for the serving chief executive.
“It shouldn’t be interpreted as the central government’s support for Leung to seek a second term, as there are still two years to go before the next chief executive election,” the official said.
Asked why Xinhua did not report on Leung’s meeting with Zhang, the official said that as the chief executive’s visit to the capital was specially arranged on top of his annual duty visits in December, it was not a must to report such a meeting.
Regarding the removal of the two ministers, the official also said under “one country, two systems”, the central government usually respected chief executive’s decisions and recommendations.
People close to Leung took the central government’s green light for removing Tsang as proof of Beijing’s backing for the chief executive, whose intention to seek a second term is an open secret.
A person familiar with the sudden shake-up said Beijing and Leung were unhappy with the performance of Tsang, a left-leaning journalist-turned-minister, adding that he was not proactive enough on youth work. It is a factor Beijing officials blame for leading to last year’s 79-day Occupy protests.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1843295/beijing-support-cy-leung-should-not-be-seen-backing-second
