Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee was in no mood for messing about. Pointing her index finger at reporters one October morning inside Hong Kong’s legislature, she sternly signalled for them to get out of her way.
“Don’t block my way to the meeting,” she said. “Move away.”
Her demeanour seemed to hark back to an Ip of an earlier era – the fiery, hardline security minister who spearheaded national security legislation in 2003 – while others read it as a hint that the veteran politician was about to bid a…