Hong Kong’s sole chief executive candidate John Lee Lee later told the press that he visited
isited two households –
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.
Hong Kong’s John Lee banks on TV forum, visits to
subdivided flats to revamp image
24 Apr 2022
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
a single mother who lived with her two children in a 150
sq ft home, and an elderly woman who lived alone in a
40 sq ft subdivided flat. Both were in the queue for
public housing.
“I understand housing is key to the solutions of many
important issues in Hong Kong. It’s not just about the
living environment, but also poverty and resource
distribution,” Lee said.
“I won’t underestimate the challenges to this deep-
rooted problem long accumulated for years. If elected, I
will streamline the procedure of expediting land and
make interdepartmental coordination more effective. It
also applies to the delivery, I will think of ways to
compress the building process.”
Asked if he had a target of when Hong Kong’s notorious
subdivided flats would be eliminated, Lee said he hoped
to “achieve results” instead of “solely chanting slogans”.
Last year, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and
Macau Affairs Office, implored the city to “say goodbye”
to such squalid rented compartments and set a deadline
of 2049 for them to be erased from the city’s housing.
Lin, owner of a Chinese medicine pharmacy in the area
Lee visited. Photo: Natalie Wong
Lin, owner of a Chinese medicine pharmacy in the area
Lee visited. Photo: Natalie Wong
The Post spoke to some residents and businesses in the
area after Lee left the scene. One man, who only gave
his name as Wong, said the candidate’s home visits were
merely “political stunts”. “There were plenty of police
group of journalists, modelling the annual TV
programmes held by the city leader and financial
secretary following their respective policy address and
budget announcement.
Lee with his campaign team on Sunday. Photo: K. Y.
Cheng
Lee with his campaign team on Sunday. Photo: K. Y.
Cheng
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.
“On a scale of 10, I’d give him six to seven points,”
said Professor Song Sio-chong at Shenzhen University’s
Centre for Basic Laws of Hong Kong and Macau.
“But subdivided flat residents and ethnic minority
people are relatively easier residents to engage, he
must also meet in person the more difficult ones such
as university students, and the sectors hit hard by the
pandemic.”
The leadership hopeful was accompanied by about 10
members of his team when he arrived on Shanghai
Street near Yau Ma Tei’s iconic fruit market at 10am,
and greeted two shop owners before walking up a
tong lau – an old tenement-style building – housing
hundreds of residential units.
During the 40-minute closed-door visit, the building
entrance was guarded by plain-clothes police officers
who kept journalists off the premises.
officers inspecting the building the whole morning,” the
resident said.
An owner of a Chinese medicine pharmacy, named Lin,
who greeted Lee before the former official walked up
into the building, said he hoped the new administration
would boost economic recovery as he was gearing up to
shut down his business in the coming months after a
hammering from the Omicron-fuelled fifth wave.
The press was allowed to cover the first five minutes of
the 40-minute session between Lee and representatives
of ethnic minority groups in Jordan. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
The press was allowed to cover the first five minutes of
the 40-minute session between Lee and representatives
of ethnic minority groups in Jordan. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
Lee, formerly Hong Kong’s No 2 official, also went to Yau
Tsim Mong Multicultural Activity Centre in Jordan to
meet a dozen representatives of ethnic minority groups,
with the session arranged by the New Home Association.
The charitable organisation, which also serves new
arrivals from the mainland, was founded by pro-Beijing
billionaire Hui Wing-mau, chairman of the Shimao Group
and vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of
Returned Overseas Chinese.
Members of the press were allowed to cover five
minutes of the 40-minute closed-door talks, during
which Lee affirmed that the city’s success hinged on
harmony, togetherness and diversity.
After the session, Lee described his exchanges with the
four attendees who represented the local Pakistani,
African, Nepali and Indian communities as “rewarding”,
as he welcomed suggestions to help ethnic minorities
integrate with society. He said one African business
leader urged the government to reopen the border with
mainland China so they could resume operations.
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