OpinionBeijing is moving steadily to bring Hong Kong closer into the fold

With arrests of pro-democracy figures and central government oversight expanding, Beijing is pushing for patriotic education and an anti-sedition law – moves likely to reignite Hong Kong protests, which, in turn, could earn a crackdown

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Published: 9:00am, 8 May 2020Updated: 9:05am, 8 May 2020

Three years ago, when visiting Washington as she neared completion of her term as Hong Kong’s second-ranking official, career civil servant Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said she planned to leave government and do something different at year end – “perhaps social work”.

Would that she had.

Instead, she became Hong Kong’s fourth consecutive chief executive to become wildly unpopular since China regained sovereignty in 1997, yet another Beijing-backed leader required (or quite willing) to enforce unwanted policies. Rather than provide strengthened self-rule, her term has seen growing mainland interference in Hong Kong affairs and a steady erosion of its promised “high degree of autonomy” – with predictable opposition. A recent poll found that 68 per cent of the public disapproves of her government.

That makes the answer to Hong Kong’s basic question – who is in charge here? – more obvious. Whenever the Communist Party considers the topic important, Beijing makes the decision and Hong Kong’s administrators must fall in line.

Any inconvenient law that suggests otherwise – such as Article 22 of the Basic Law – can be ignored; true local autonomy is a sometime thing. With increasing frequency, Beijing now says its representatives are entitled to guide local affairs no matter what the legalities may say.