Opinion | A perfect political storm is brewing again in Hong Kong, and Carrie Lam is sailing right into it

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is far too important and busy to make small talk, but someone really needs to talk to her about the weather. This isn’t a topic she’s entirely unfamiliar with, given that her line on the enactment of Article 23 of the Basic Law has been to wait for, or create, a “suitable social climate”.

Unfortunately, the Lam administration has proved to be terrible at reading political weather patterns. Political headwinds have been building for months, but the government seems oblivious. You must remember the heartless way Lam and her welfare chief Law Chi-kwong handled the row over the minimum age for receiving elderly welfare, followed by the government’s embarrassment of twice having to shelve a plan to adjust cross-harbour tunnel tolls – because it couldn’t even convince political allies that the plan would work.

In fact, the Lam administration has been patently incapable of selling Hongkongers on anything – be it the Lantau Tomorrow Vision or the Greater Bay Area. All these failures are evidence that Lam’s political barometer is broken, if she even cares which way the wind is blowing.

The government has now seized on the tragedy of a young woman who was killed during a holiday with her boyfriend in Taiwan to rush through sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s extradition law to allow the transfer of fugitives to Taiwan, Macau and the mainland.

However, unlike with the elderly welfare and toll adjustment fiascos, the government isn’t wavering from its tough stance this time. It has indicated it won’t budge, or even talk to opponents of the extradition bill.