Ex-Hong Kong leader crosses swords with incumbent again over land supply

A debate between an ex-leader of Hong Kong and the current chief executive over land supply shows no signs of dying down, with the former urging the government to provide more comprehensive details of its planning for future development.

Wednesday’s volley by former city leader Leung Chun-ying came a day after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu stressed that authorities needed to continuously create land to keep in control of the market, a rebuttal to Leung’s earlier warning of possible fiscal challenges brought by oversupply.

Writing on his social media, Leung said: “The quantitative estimates under the planning [process] may not always be accurate, but both supply and demand have to be quantified and refined.”

Leung, now a vice-chairman of the country’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, questioned whether the city should earmark additional zones for reclamation, regardless of the cost, if the objective was solely to create more land.

If that is not the strategy, then what basis were authorities using to determine how much reclamation was needed, he asked.

Leung also drew an analogy of making tong sui, or Chinese dessert soup.

“Making sweet soup needs sugar. Does it mean the more sugar the better? The earlier you buy the sugar the better? Does a kitchen need to store 10 catties (6kg) of sugar if a family always makes sweet soup? It is a matter of grasping the quantity and timing,” he said.