Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam open to the possibility of overhauling cabinet when protest crisis dies down
- Embattled leader also says she will not tolerate any violent or unlawful acts, when asked about alleged police brutality
- Lam speaks on radio phone-ins to explain proposals from policy speech in which she cited housing as a key source of public grievances
Hong Kong’s embattled leader hinted on Saturday that she was open to reshuffling her cabinet, which includes ministers and advisers, but only after the months-long political crisis rocking the city died down.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Saturday also addressed allegations of police brutality in the handling of the unrest, saying the government would not tolerate violent or unlawful acts, including from members in the disciplinary forces.
Lam was speaking on phone-in programmes on RTHK and Commercial Radio, when she was asked about reforming her team of advisers while explaining proposals unveiled on Wednesday in her policy address.
“I will not rule out the possibility, but I will decide when we have reached this stage,” she said.
She doubled down on housing as the root cause of public grievances while defending initiatives in her policy speech, saying they were intended to help first-time homebuyers and were unlikely to cause substantial price increases.
Under one major initiative, the government-backed Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) will relax restrictions for first-time buyers, raising the lending cap to HK$8 million (US$1 million) from the current HK$4 million for people borrowing up to 90 per cent of the value of a flat.
