'HK People Not A Priority For Puppet Carrie Lam'

Pan-democratic legislators said on Monday that Chief Executive Carrie Lam's move to scrap her Policy Address this week shows the people of Hong Kong are not one of her top priorities.

They said while the public are in desperate need of assistance from the SAR government as they struggle during the pandemic, Lam has clearly been ordered to hold off on announcing any new policies and to wait for further instructions from Beijing.

Earlier in the day, Lam announced that the address is being postponed to give her time to hold face-to-face talks with mainland officials on how the central government can help revive Hong Kong's flagging economy.

But opposition lawmakers said they were not convinced by the explanation.

“Why would Carrie Lam make such a change?” asked the Democratic Party’s chairman Wu Chi-wai.

“It’s because she has received some sort of order from the north, from the central government, that she has to hold up her Policy Address, that she has to wait for further instructions from the central government,” Wu said.

“She is now only a puppet,” he concluded.

The Civic Party’s Kwok Ka-ki said the postponement demonstrates that the people of Hong Kong are not high on Lam's list of priorities, while the CE herself isn't worth much in Beijing's eyes.