London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

Xi props up Hong Kong’s Lam in surprise meeting

Central authorities have faith in you and highly regard your work, Xi told Lam in Shanghai.

In what appeared to be an ad hoc move, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam was summoned to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday night to be briefed on the latest developments in the former British territory.

The meeting comes at a time when Hong Kong continues to hurtle from one weekend of tear gas and chaos to another – since June, when a now-retracted extradition law amendment ignited social unrest.

Both Xi and Lam were in Shanghai to attend the second China International Import Expo, however, there had been no reports of a scheduled meeting between the two until Xinhua ran a story at midnight.

“The central authorities maintain unwavering trust in you and highly regard your and your team’s work,” Xinhua quoted Xi as saying. He also acknowledged Lam’s perseverance and her strenuous efforts to get to grips with the situation and improve the situation throughout the past five tumultuous months.

While heaping praise on Lam, Xi also issued a rallying call to all sectors in the city to end the protracted turmoil and restore order as the top priority, and that quashing the riots and bringing the scoundrels and instigators to justice would be the only means to safeguard the interests of all Hongkongers.

Xi prodded Lam to further engage the public and address people’s livelihood woes, without mentioning Lam’s perceived maladministration and her failure to feel and grasp people’s sentiments, especially at the outset of the protests.

Also present at the late night meeting in Shanghai were foreign minister Wang Yi and public security minister Zhao Kezhi, who had just been appointed to Beijing’s top taskforce on Hong Kong affairs.

It was the first time Xi had commented in public on the pandemonium facing Hong Kong and his ringing endorsement of Lam was seen as a bid to dismiss the rumor that Lam’s days in office were numbered.

The Financial Times claimed at the end of October that Beijing had already drafted a plan to let the embattled Lam go and install “an interim Hong Kong chief” as soon as March, who would serve out the remainder of Lam’s term until June 2022.

Citing sources briefed on the deliberations, the broadsheet also suggested that leading candidates included former chief of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Norman Chan and former Chief Secretary Henry Tang.

Reuters also published a leaked audio clip of Lam telling business leaders in a closed-door meeting in early September that she would have already quit if she could, “having caused such havoc,” one day before Lam announced the formal withdrawal of the contentious extradition bill in a humiliating climbdown.

The bill sought to enable the surrender of fugitives to all jurisdictions which the city did not have a formal rendition deal with, including mainland China, Taiwan and Macau.

Xi’s words to prop up the deeply unpopular Lam have caused fresh worries in Hong Kong’s pan-democratic bloc. Lawmaker Tanya Chan told reporters that Lam may harden her stance and deploy more aggressive tactics to clamp down on protesters, which could never dissolve the tension.

Yet not everyone entertains the belief that Lam’s job is safe, citing the precedent of Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first post-colonial era leader, who was also given a thumbs-up by Beijing in 2003 even though SARS broke out and the bid to enact a national security clause failed under Tung’s watch

He abruptly resigned in early 2005 citing health issues, two years before the end of his second tenure.

Still, with next year’s Legislative Council election approaching, there is some doubt that Beijing has the resources to hold a by-election to select a new leader to replace Lam. But heads may roll in Lam’s team as some secretaries and top advisors can be asked to leave.

Lam is due to head for Beijing on Wednesday to meet Deputy Premier Han Zheng, head of the Communist Party’s taskforce on Hong Kong.

Separately, Hong Kong papers reported on Tuesday that the government had been mulling pardoning some of those convicted for offenses committed during the protests on a case-by-case basis as a gesture of reconciliation, with the prerequisite of finishing all related prosecution procedures and ensuring judicial independence.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×