Carrie Lam evasive on Hong Kong leadership bid as museum row snowballs

Chief secretary pledges to ‘spare no effort to do something good for Hong Kong’, but she fails to satisfy critics of HK$3.5 billion arts hub project

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Carrie Lam (centre) at a charity event on Saturday at the Hong Kong Sports Institute. Photo: Bruce Yan

Published: 1:45pm, 31 Dec 2016Updated: 11:53am, 1 Jan 2017

Hong Kong’s No 2 official remained ambivalent on Saturday about running for the city’s top job while coming under increasing attack over a controversial museum deal with Beijing – an unexpected political hot potato that is snowballing into a major challenge just before her widely expected leadership bid.

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor avoided questions from the media on mounting political opposition to a plan to build Hong Kong’s own version of Beijing’s famed Palace Museum following an official Friday midnight press release that threw up more questions than satisfying critics.

But in her speech at a charity event, Lam continued to drop hints on the possibility of running for chief executive in March and recalled a doctor once advising her to “act according to her strength”.

“But I feel that if it is something good for Hong Kong, something I can do to concentrate positive energy for Hong Kong, I will spare no effort,” she said.

“The year 2017 will be very important to me because no matter what decision I make later on, my role will change.”

She had nothing further to add to the statement by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority Board, which she chairs, defending the decision-making process for the museum, which is to be built at the arts hub.