Beleaguered Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has revealed the ideal legacy she wants to leave behind, saying: “I want to be remembered as the ‘chief executive for the people of Hong Kong’.”

Lam was replying to a media question about how she wished to be remembered, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. She was not the type of person who cared for such things, she said, but that answer was the same she had given to a similar question as she took office in 2017.

After a full year of chaos, law and order had been restored in Hong Kong through the national security law, Lam said. Her recent policy address contained a lot of directions that had received Beijing’s blessings for Hong Kong “to play a more active role” in the nation’s development, considering Hong Kong’s “very promising” roles as a gateway and a connector to the rest of the world, she continued.

Lam also blamed the rushing of the national security law into legislation on Hongkongers “who have been resisting all the work related to the mainland and national security over the years,” such as their objection to similar legislation in 2003 and a 2015 political reform package that would have allowed the election of the chief executive by “universal suffrage.”

It was “unbelievable” that a country could tolerate part of its territory not being protected by national security laws, Lam said.

Asked about oath-taking requirements under the national security law, Lam said the government would carefully define the people in public office who needed to take the loyalty pledge. The law required the government, schools and social organizations to promote national security, she added.

Lam said she had no complaint as long as companies followed the law, when asked about decisions by Facebook, Google and other technological firms to turn down government data requests despite the national security law. Concerns among international business chambers over the law had decreased compared to the first month after the law’s enactment, Lam said.

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