HONG KONG — A reshuffle of Hong Kong's cabinet is not an "immediate task", the city's Beijing-backed leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday, as she prepared to visit the Chinese capital for the first time since her government's humiliation at local polls last month. On Sunday, pro-democracy protesters participated in the largest mass rally since their candidates scored a landslide victory in the district elections, raising further doubts over how long Beijing is prepared to back Lam. Declaring her priority was to restore law and order after more than six months of often violent protests, Lam said at a weekly media address that she would depart on Saturday for a regular visit to Beijing, where she would brief officials on Hong Kong's biggest political crisis in decades. With pressure mounting on her government, the Apple Daily newspaper, owned by pro-democracy publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, reported China was considering a Hong Kong cabinet reshuffle by the end of the year. Since the protests began until now, Lam has avoided mention of the prospects of changes to her team.

Source: International New York Times December 10, 2019 05:37 UTC