HONG KONG Despite Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's landslide victory in the Hong Kong leadership election, there is little guarantee that the Beijing-backed bureaucrat can be a uniting force for the divided territory during her five-year term.
It was to a chorus of cheers and jeers that the 59-year-old Lam was elected on March 26 as Hong Kong's first female chief executive. Her winning vote count of 777, or 67% of the 1,163 valid ballots cast by a small circle of notables, has emerged as a source of division. Pro-Beijing loyalists are calling the number a "symbol of luck," citing its use for jackpots on slot machines and its biblical significance.
