https://www.scmp.com/rss/500896/feed Viswa Nathan is a former editor in chief of the now-defunct broadsheet morning daily, the Hong Kong Standard. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com I receive a few messages from friends every day about Covid-19. Many of them raise a chuckle, light relief in these days of global lockdowns and profound anxiety. But then came a different kind of message from a friend in Hong Kong. It carried a few questions. Why has the coronavirus that has spread across the globe, infecting some 3 million people and claiming over 200,000 lives, not done much damage in its birthplace, China? Also, while the pandemic drove stock markets around the world to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3081793/china-should-welcome-international-investigation-clear-air-its-role?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3081793/china-should-welcome-international-investigation-clear-air-its-role?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Apr 2020 19:00:10 +0000 Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor dropped a hint in the Legislative Council on January 16 that Hong Kong could hope for its governing principle of “one country, two systems” to continue beyond the 2047 deadline and for the city to remain free of direct communist rule. It is not something to be pooh-poohed as an attempt of an embattled administrator to hoodwink the public. There seems to be more to her statements than meet the eye. Consider the timing, and how an opportunity to drop a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047854/beijings-hunt-right-leader-clean-hong-kongs-mess-could-start?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047854/beijings-hunt-right-leader-clean-hong-kongs-mess-could-start?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jan 2020 03:00:09 +0000 Now that a new year has dawned, let’s reflect deeply on the deeds of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor over the past year. Many have vilified Lam for moving the infamous, since-withdrawn, extradition bill and subsequently refusing to respond to the demands of the protesters. Others have ridiculed her as insensitive, incompetent and clueless. I, too, believed Lam was dancing to Beijing’s tune rather than serving Hong Kong. But I now begin to wonder if those conclusions weren’t... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3044885/did-carrie-lam-choose-follow-her-conscience-and-unite-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3044885/did-carrie-lam-choose-follow-her-conscience-and-unite-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Jan 2020 22:00:12 +0000 Let’s give the devil his due. Hong Kong’s second-in-command Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, deserves a round of applause for being shamelessly honest. He told the Legislative Council on November 13 that he doesn’t know what the biggest cause of public anger is at the moment. He pointed out that the extradition bill, which sparked the mass protests in early June, has long been withdrawn and that he didn’t have an opinion poll at hand to find out what else exactly is behind the lingering... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037858/hong-kongs-protests-rage-chief-secretary-matthew-cheung-has-become?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037858/hong-kongs-protests-rage-chief-secretary-matthew-cheung-has-become?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Nov 2019 09:00:14 +0000 Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has achieved little with her wilted olive branch of withdrawing an extradition bill previously pronounced “dead”. The mass protests she helped to spark, now in their fourth month, rage on. The protests have become matters of sovereignty and security, therefore a national issue, Lam previously said, in effect washing her hands of the crisis. She also said Beijing is willing to play the long game. Any view that the protests will fizzle out, like... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3026763/hong-kong-protests-will-not-fizzle-out-their-own-beijing-needs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3026763/hong-kong-protests-will-not-fizzle-out-their-own-beijing-needs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Sep 2019 03:00:05 +0000 It’s unthinkable. Just over four decades ago, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Hong Kong’s current chief executive, stood up calling for a responsive government. She was then a student at Hong Kong University, and she marched with fellow HKU students to Government House to present a petition pleading with then-governor Murray MacLehose to consider the concerns of students and teachers at the Precious Blood Golden Jubilee Secondary School, who were protesting against a cover-up of their headmistress,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3011080/extradition-bill-carrie-lam-failing-show-wisdom-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3011080/extradition-bill-carrie-lam-failing-show-wisdom-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 May 2019 01:00:07 +0000