My Take | An open invitation for Beijing to intervene

What is the worst-case scenario for Hong Kong? Like many people, I have been blasé about the likelihood of Beijing sending in PLA troops. That would spell the end of the city. Why would Beijing do that? Even now, I don’t believe it would. But the possibility is not zero.

The thinking has always been that even if Beijing has lost public trust, it could still count on a loyal – and functioning – Hong Kong government. But this proposition may not be true any more. In an unprecedented rally, thousands of civil servants and medical staff, most of whom are employed by the Hospital Authority, a public body, demonstrated against their own government over its handling of the now-shelved extradition bill.

Two letters, supposedly written by government prosecutors but unsigned, have blasted the government not only for the extradition bill, but the hasty manner in which their boss – Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah – approved the police’s charging of 44 protesters for rioting, which carries a heavy jail sentence that counts in years.

Meanwhile, an anonymous letter, purportedly written by a group of disgruntled police officers, has alleged that several senior officers were implicated in the triad attack in Yuen Long last month. There is no way to authenticate those letters. But at least some government workers have rebelled; who knows how representative they are of the rest of the civil service? As time goes by, without a political resolution, this situation will only worsen, not improve.

As for a functioning government, well, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her top ministers have taken a leave of absence for weeks now. The police cannot hold the line indefinitely. The triad attack in Yuen Long is an ominous warning. While there are 32,000-plus police officers, only some are trained in anti-riot tactics. The key difference between the current protest movement and the so-called umbrella revolution of 2014 is one of nimbleness and mobility. While protesters primarily camped out in three locations in 2014, today’s protesters have moved quickly from place to place across the city, week after week. They are evolving a classic guerilla strategy against a superior force, and have exhausted and demoralised anti-riot police who must follow orders from a centralised command. There is also the psychological warfare of online and public harassment of officers and their families, coupled with critical media reports.