12th September 2026 – (Hong Kong) Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok has again brushed aside talk of a run for chief executive, calling such questions pointless jokes and saying he is concentrating on his own work with less than a year left in the present administration’s term.
Political circles have floated the 58-year-old as a possible contender when the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government changes over next year. In a recent television interview he was asked once more whether he would move up and seek the top post. He replied that people should not indulge in idle jokes and should focus on their jobs, adding that his recent work has centred on how to keep the public firm in their confidence in Hong Kong’s rule of law.
“Frankly, don’t talk pointless jokes; concentrate on your own work — that is very important,” he said, stressing that he takes the confidence-in-the-law brief seriously. In a fourth-anniversary interview in June he had already been asked three times, directly or indirectly, about staying on or climbing higher. Then too he said he wanted to do his present job properly, that nobody knows what tomorrow brings, and that before the change of government his only aim was to finish the work in hand rather than dwell on idle speculation. Judging his own performance, he added, was for others; he simply hoped to do the job well. Looking ahead, he likened firm forecasts to buying Mark Six — nobody can know what happens next.
Lam was removed from a United States sanctions list in mid-July and was later invited to speak at a lunch of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Some in the room put questions that showed their stance; he answered courteously where he disagreed, and said the important point was that foreign business raised issues he was willing to address head-on. He did not pretend the two sides would soon be of one mind, but insisted that keeping channels open mattered most.
On national security and development he described a “dynamic balance” and “benign interaction”, arguing the two should not exclude each other. Without a working economy, he said, people lack the means even to talk about personal or national security. Absolute safety taken to the extreme would mean shutting the door forever and living like a cave-dweller — only to starve, with no development at all.