Hong Kong’s new government retains finance chief in sign of continuity

HONG KONG, June 19 (Reuters) – China unveiled on Sunday new best officials in Hong Kong below incoming chief John Lee, who vowed to consider the world-wide financial hub to new heights, while shrugging off concerns about sanctions the United States has imposed on him.

In a indicator of continuity for the economical industry, which experienced watched the appointment closely, Finance Secretary Paul Chan, who is totally free of U.S. sanctions, is to retain his article in the Chinese-dominated territory.

Hong Kong’s new justice secretary will be Paul Lam, getting the spot of Teresa Cheng, when Eric Chan turns into the new main secretary, or No. 2 formal, mentioned the formal information company, Xinhua, and the territory’s govt.

Lee, the previous deputy chief of Hong Kong, will be sworn in to swap Main Executive Carrie Lam on July 1, a working day after the close of her 5-calendar year term.

Lam oversaw a single of the territory’s most tumultuous durations, featuring professional-democracy demonstrations, a sweeping new countrywide security legislation and the battle in opposition to the coronavirus.

“The future five several years will be a vital time for Hong Kong to advance from stability to prosperity,” Lee explained to a information conference.

“We will be proactive in successful the rely on of the people today … My workforce and I will rise to the worries leading Hong Kong.”

Some Hong Kong media have explained President Xi Jinping is expected to attend Lee’s swearing-in ceremony in Hong Kong, but it was not confirmed if senior mainland leaders would go to.

A previous profession law enforcement officer, Lee is extensively expected to prioritise stability problems, immediately after obtaining urged new laws to entirely implement the national security regulation Beijing imposed in 2020. read through a lot more

The U.S. sanctions qualified him, along with other Hong Kong and Chinese officers, for what Washington called their part in curbing Hong Kong’s freedoms below the stability legislation.

“Some bullying nations attempted to use sanction actions to scare officials,” Lee mentioned. “That tends to make us extra persistent to have on protecting countrywide protection.”

The United States also put sanctions on Eric Chan, who is to be Lee’s deputy.

Hong Kong and Chinese authorities deny specific legal rights are getting eroded and say the protection laws was needed to restore steadiness right after extended unrest in 2019.

Lam, the new justice secretary, has been a deputy choose of the city’s substantial court docket considering the fact that 2015.

A British colony right until 1997, Hong Kong is on large notify as COVID-19 infections have risen to additional than 1,000, even though there is no indicator but of tighter curbs ahead of the swearing-in.

Its measures nevertheless fee between the toughest, with at least a week’s hotel quarantine for overseas people and obligatory every day tests for tens of hundreds of persons.

Reporting by Farah Grasp and Donny Kwok Editing by Clarence Fernandez

Our Criteria: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.