Opinion | If Carrie Lam cannot quit over the extradition bill crisis, other heads in her cabinet must roll

Beijing seems to be rethinking its system of monitoring Hong Kong and assessing how to deal with the political crisis. If it refuses to let Carrie Lam resign, other Executive Council members must take the fall so that trust can be rebuilt

Reading Time:3 minutes

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor heads to a press briefing at 4am on June 2 at the police headquarters in Wan Chai, after extradition bill protesters occupied the Legislative Council complex. Following behind are (from left) Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu and Police Commissioner Stephen Lo Wai-chung. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 6:00am, 22 Jul 2019Updated: 6:16am, 22 Jul 2019

One of the most fascinating aspects of Hong Kong’s political reality is that even when Beijing takes a back seat, people look to it and anticipate its next move. That’s the case right now amid the political vacuum that has emerged in the wake of the death of the extradition bill. The government’s “complete failure” to try to amend the existing laws on extradition has driven Hong Kong to anarchy, with initial outrage over the bill giving way to total pandemonium.

Six weeks of protests and Beijing is still leaving it to the Hong Kong government to handle the situation. But it is clear the government has not been getting much of a handle on things.

The Financial Times reported that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor repeatedly tried to tender her resignation and that Beijing has repeatedly rejected it, telling Lam to clean up her own mess. While a top aide to Lam denied that the report was true, it is seen by many to be credible. It’s hard to believe that Beijing believes the Lam administration can clean up the biggest political crisis since the handover.

But Beijing has already acted, in a sense: it is not budging on the demands of the protesters and it is not letting Lam off the hook. It is buying time because it needs to take a step back and assess the situation – the reality on the ground – before it acts. According to people close to the situation, Beijing is trying to figure out how things have gone so wrong that the central government was caught unawares by the scale and intensity of the protests, indicating a complete failure of its system of keeping tabs on the city.

While it is almost unfathomable that Beijing does not really know what is happening under its nose, it should be clear now that those responsible for reporting and advising the central government on Hong Kong matters have failed to give Beijing an accurate picture.

It is also obvious that the small group of politically privileged Hongkongers who have Beijing’s ear also failed to gauge and reflect reality. Beijing’s monitoring system is broken and, according to sources close to the situation, the central government has been working on fixing it. The Post has reported that mainland Chinese officials in charge of Hong Kong affairs will soon present the results of their investigation and solutions to the city’s political crisis to the powers that be for deliberation.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x