New Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam faces myriad challenges

Carrie Lam won a landslide victory over rival John Tsang to become the new leader of Hong Kong. Many challenges await her.

Hong Kong is already divided between pro-Beijing and pro-Western democratic factions. Lam was Beijing’s preferred candidate before the election of Hong Kong’s chief executive, so if she is elected, she will have a hard time stabilizing the political situation in the city.

New leader Carrie Lam of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Photo: SCMP.

Critics of Carrie Lam say her as the new leader will only further polarize Hong Kong society.

Before becoming the head of the Hong Kong government, Carrie Lam rose through many positions from being an ordinary civil servant.

She served as deputy to Hong Kong's outgoing leader, Leung Chun-ying.

Many activists have a negative image of Carrie Lam after she pushed for a Beijing-backed reform package that directly led to massive protests in 2014 that paralyzed Hong Kong for more than two months.

However, those protests still did not make Beijing give in and accept completely independent leadership elections.

Ms Lam has not mentioned that political controversy much anymore. Instead, she has tried to connect with the public through civic issues.

The 59-year-old leader paints himself as a reformer focused on issues such as poverty and housing.

Carrie Lam is favored by China's leadership. When she resigned as Deputy Chief Executive of Hong Kong to prepare to run for election, she was quickly approved by Beijing.

Meanwhile, the resignation of her rival, Tsang, took more than a month to be approved by Chinese officials.

On the one hand, Ms. Lam promised to work to build consensus and “restore confidence and hope” in Hong Kong. On the other hand, she also said she would “strengthen the relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China.”

Ms Lam has stressed that there is no room for Hong Kong independence from China as some young activists call for the city to split from China.

She also encountered some difficulties in building the image of a leader close to the people. When using the subway system during the election campaign, she appeared unfamiliar with the way to use a magnetic card to open the barrier of this service./.

According to VOV