Opinion | If Carrie Lam has any love for Hong Kong, she must clean up her political mess to break the cycle of violence

Since the mob attack in Yuen Long last month, the anti-extradition protest has transformed into a massive anti-government movement. The alleged collusion between the police and gangsters has angered the majority of Hong Kong people. Civil servants and professionals from different fields have stepped up and protested against the government.

When even civil servants are protesting, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s goose is cooked. If, in the end, Beijing has no choice but to intervene and prematurely terminate “one country, two systems”, seven million Hongkongers, without exception, will suffer.

In past weeks, the social movement has evolved from large-scale protests to guerilla operations across different districts. Rallies, assemblies and protests have ended in violent confrontations between protesters and police. At one end, protesters have tried to bring the city to a standstill by blocking main roads and setting fires in streets.

At the other end, the police have drastically escalated the use of force to clear crowds. A large number of people have been arrested, sometimes unreasonably. Protesters and police are locked in a vicious circle.

No one wants to see Hong Kong reaching a dead end. Given that the current political crisis is a mess made by Lam, she should be the one cleaning it up. First things first, she must stop hiding behind the police and start addressing the demands of the people.

If the police continue to use force, the city will only become more divided. The government must avoid a replay of the “228 incident”, an uprising in Taiwan that was brutally crushed by Kuomintang troops. If something like that were to happen in Hong Kong, the hatred of the government and the Communist Party would last for generations and there would be no way back.