LettersCarrie Lam’s reaction to a question on Hong Kong’s ‘self-rule’ confirms a worrying trend away from autonomy

The phrases ‘high degree of self-rule’ and ‘Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong’ often used to accompany references to ‘one country, two systems’ but this has become rare. To bridge the divide between her and the public, Carrie Lam should not shy away from those phrases

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Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s first dialogue session with the community at Queen Elizabeth station, Wan Chai, on September 26 did little to ease Hong Kong’s discontent. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:55am, 13 Oct 2019Updated: 7:55am, 13 Oct 2019

I was taken quite aback when Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor tried to correct a young man who said he supports “one country, two systems” and Hong Kong being “self-ruled” during her dialogue session on September 26.

Like most Hongkongers, who have not studied the Basic Law and the Joint Sino-British Declaration in detail, I simply trusted what the Chinese government promised us some 30 years ago: “one country, two systems”, “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” and “a high degree of self-rule”. I am aware that many official documents in English use the word “autonomy” instead of “self-rule” but the Chinese term can be literally translated as “self-rule”.

Moreover, official documents have begun to use the word “administering” instead of “ruling” Hong Kong.

In the first 15 years after the handover, we often heard the three phrases and felt reassured. But in the past seven years, the last two phrases seem to be rarely mentioned in speeches made by Chinese leaders at plenary meetings and in important national documents.

At first, I thought the media was being too sensitive or trying to be critical. But over time, even in Hong Kong, you don’t hear the latter two phrases anymore. Then I realised that if something, no matter how important it is, is no longer mentioned, people do forget it.