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Letters | Hong Kong cabinet reshuffle a sign that autonomy under China is well and truly dead

  • Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s move can only be interpreted as aligning with Beijing’s wishes and its stance on Hong Kong affairs

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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (centre) attends a press briefing on March 3 with Patrick Nip, then secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, and the Secretary for Food and Health, Sophia Chan. Nip will now take over the civil service portfolio. Photo: AFP
Letters
I wrote to the Post back in November suggesting that the results of the District Council election would give Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s administration a legitimate reason to change course. Fast forward five months and now finally we have a cabinet reshuffle, supposedly due to the chief executive being disappointed by the performance of some of her ministers.

What’s baffling however, is that these ministers are not the ones who are extremely unpopular with the public and responsible for the extradition bill fiasco, but rather ones who have apparently been too soft.

There are many ways one can interpret this move by the chief executive, but one thing is for certain – it once again shows the government is both incompetent and oblivious to the concerns of Hongkongers. There is no balancing between serving two masters as Lam suggested back at the height of the Hong Kong protests; rather there is only one, and that is Beijing.

Beijing is paranoid about the possibility of the opposition taking a majority in the Legislative Council elections in September and has upped its rhetoric in the city in the last couple of weeks. Lam’s move to reshuffle the cabinet demonstrates she firmly aligns with Beijing and its stance on the city’s affairs.
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Beijing’s recent foray of interjecting itself directly into the city’s affairs shows that its fear of the Legco elections is making it more brazen.

Opposition lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, who has been singled out by Beijing for “paralysing” Legco with “malicious” filibustering, speaks to the press at the Legislative Council complex in Admiralty on April 17. Photo: Edmond So
Opposition lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, who has been singled out by Beijing for “paralysing” Legco with “malicious” filibustering, speaks to the press at the Legislative Council complex in Admiralty on April 17. Photo: Edmond So
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President Xi Jinping is no longer content to just pull the strings from the background as he grows increasingly impatient with Hong Kong’s “autonomy”. Beijing is now calling the shots both publicly and privately, and, unlike with the extradition protests, where it took many months for any form of government action, it has taken the Hong Kong government less than two weeks to respond.

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