Officials from Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong were “angered” by a young district councillor’s brief attempt to compete in a beauty pageant and cautioned her political party over it, according to sources who viewed her move as falling short of the expected conduct of a public officeholder.

The Post also learned that the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and the government chose to downplay the saga while resisting any investigation into whether Angel Chong Nga-ting’s actions constituted misconduct so as to avoid “renewing the public’s attention” on the incident.

Chong had reportedly brought her assistant in the Sai Kung District Council along to the interview, who distributed cold drinks to reporters on site. The assistant was also seen providing Chong’s contact information as a councillor to journalists.

Multiple insiders from the DAB said Chong had not informed the party of her decision to join the beauty contest.

“The liaison office was angry at her move and also the party for allowing the incident to happen,” a DAB source said.