Carrie Lam Hints At Reshuffle When Chaos Ends

Chief Executive Carrie Lam has indicated that she may be willing to reform her Executive Council, but said she wouldn't make any changes until the protests that have gripped Hong Kong for more than four months die down.

Mrs Lam made the remarks as she faced questions from the public on two Chinese-language radio programmes on Saturday morning.

Asked by the host of one programme whether the administration should take greater responsibility for the tensions, Lam said she and her officials were focusing on the job, not because they are obsessed with power, but because they want to serve Hong Kong as best they can.

But she said that reform of Exco was possible once the current impasse came to an end.

Lam also rejected the latest call for an independent inquiry into the policing of recent events, which came from the Chinese University's vice-chancellor, Rocky Tuan.

Tuan said in an open letter on Friday that he had received reports of police abuse and misconduct from 20 students who had been arrested during recent protests.

Lam again insisted that the public should wait for a report from Independent Police Complaints Council into the recent clashes. She stressed that she wasn't "blindly supporting" the actions of each individual officer but staunchly backed the force as a whole in enforcing the law.

One caller criticised a move in her latest policy address that will allow first-time buyers to take out mortgages of up to 90 per cent of the value of homes worth up to HK$8 million, instead of the previous HK$4 million. The caller argued that the move risked further inflating home prices.

Lam said she didn't think the property market would heat up in the coming months, due to the difficulties faced by sectors such as retail and catering. She said Hong Kong's economy had slipped into recession in the third quarter, for which official figures have not yet been published.