https://www.scmp.com/rss/866/feed Michael Chugani is a Hong Kong journalist and TV show host en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? To leave or not to leave? These are the two questions uppermost in the minds of Hongkongers now that vague red lines have made many fearful of freely discussing sensitive political issues. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor insists normality has returned after the social unrest of 2019. But many of us know normality is fake when imposed through a national security law and election overhaul that curtails space for the opposition.  What we now have is more... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3129486/get-vaccinated-bring-hong-kong-back-healthy-normal-never-mind?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3129486/get-vaccinated-bring-hong-kong-back-healthy-normal-never-mind?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:30:14 +0000 Now that Beijing has decreed only patriots can rule Hong Kong by radically overhauling our election system, local loyalists have a perfect opportunity to prove their patriotism by going through everything in their wardrobes and shoe racks. Is that a Burberry trench coat, handbag or scarf? Dispose of them post-haste. Is that Nike or Adidas? Shame on you. Some might shed tears. Others might be heartbroken. Even so, their patriotic duty demands they dispose of and boycott foreign brands that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3127735/xinjiang-cotton-row-puts-burberry-nike-and-other-western-brands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3127735/xinjiang-cotton-row-puts-burberry-nike-and-other-western-brands?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 Mar 2021 23:30:11 +0000 Keep hope alive. That was former US president Barack Obama’s campaign slogan. Keeping hope alive is not a hurdle in democracies. Those who loathe Donald Trump proved it by voting him out. Those who idolise him proved it by jam-packing a rally where Trump hinted at a comeback. It requires courage to keep hope alive in authoritarian regimes. Yet the people of Myanmar are doing that, some by losing their lives, after a military coup toppled the government.  I kept hope alive by believing Beijing... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3123883/hong-kong-patriots-vague-definition-will-leave-door-open-cultural?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3123883/hong-kong-patriots-vague-definition-will-leave-door-open-cultural?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Mar 2021 22:45:11 +0000 A cold war. Extreme competition. Strategic rivalry. Call it what you want, what matters is a prolonged struggle for supremacy between the United States and China is under way. Great power rivalries rarely end in indefinite stalemate, which means there can only be three outcomes: the US remains the dominant global power, China replaces it or a hot war decides. Neither side wants the latter. A shooting war will send the world reeling. Let’s not think about how it would devastate Hong Kong, a front... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3121996/us-china-relations-new-cold-war-struggle-over-information-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3121996/us-china-relations-new-cold-war-struggle-over-information-not?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Feb 2021 00:30:04 +0000 Only patriots can govern Hong Kong. That was President Xi Jinping’s clear message to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor during a virtual meeting last week. It’s not a new directive. Patriots ruling the city was a key part of the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s vision for postcolonial Hong Kong. But the insistence that only loyalists who love Hong Kong and China can rule has grown louder and more frequent, especially after the 2019 social unrest that began as mass peaceful... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3120355/has-definition-patriots-ruling-hong-kong-narrowed-under-national?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3120355/has-definition-patriots-ruling-hong-kong-narrowed-under-national?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Feb 2021 02:45:07 +0000 By the time you read this, Joe Biden will be the new occupant of the White House. Donald Trump, who said he wouldn’t attend Biden’s swearing-in as the next United States president, is likely to be brooding at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. At the time of writing, Biden’s inauguration, scheduled for Thursday 1am Hong Kong time, hadn’t happened yet. The Capitol, which houses the Congress, has become a fortress to prevent another storming by Trump supporters. But violence or not, I know I will... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3118438/us-democracy-alive-and-well-trump-was-duly-elected-then-ejected?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3118438/us-democracy-alive-and-well-trump-was-duly-elected-then-ejected?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Jan 2021 22:15:18 +0000 It was a depressing end to the year. Nothing tells me 2021 will be any better. I know many share my gloom. Instead of hope, there is only despair. I am not talking about the coronavirus. Time and vaccines will take care of that. The cause of my despair is seeing the city I was born in morphing into something alien to me. Neither time nor vaccines can reverse Beijing’s tightening grip. It seems like almost every day something happens that slices off a part of Hong Kong which makes it distinct... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3116611/mass-arrests-and-intimidation-judiciary-signal-gloomy-2021-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3116611/mass-arrests-and-intimidation-judiciary-signal-gloomy-2021-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Jan 2021 22:45:16 +0000 At Christmas time last year, citywide protests sparked by opposition to the extradition bill had largely subsided after the opposition swept November’s district council elections and the Polytechnic University siege ended five days later. Even sporadic small-scale protests stopped after the government imposed strict social distancing rules when the coronavirus, first reported in Wuhan, reached Hong Kong. But now there’s the smell of a new kind of rebellion that’s baffling political pundits. This... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3114973/mysterious-revolt-against-carrie-lam-brewing-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3114973/mysterious-revolt-against-carrie-lam-brewing-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Dec 2020 00:30:12 +0000 Rebuild Hong Kong’s international image. Relaunch the city. Win back people’s trust. That’s not my campaign pledge for political office. I would likely be disqualified even if I chose to run. Those are words from Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s policy speech. She must be delusional if she thinks she can restore Hong Kong’s image. The city’s once enviable image is dead and buried. Lam – however highly she thinks of herself – does not have the ability to raise the dead. Democratic... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3113158/why-carrie-lam-has-no-hope-restoring-trust-or-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3113158/why-carrie-lam-has-no-hope-restoring-trust-or-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Dec 2020 22:45:09 +0000 So now we know. Think twice before you exercise free speech as defined by law and international conventions. Media acting as Beijing’s mouthpiece have their own definition of free speech. Cross their red line and you’re done for. Mask manufacturer Yellow Factory found out the hard way last week. Pro-Beijing media accused it of violating the national security law by inciting hatred, violence and prolonging resistance by young people. What exactly did Yellow Factory do to trigger such an attack –... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3111298/pro-beijing-media-setting-hong-kongs-red-lines-carrie-lams-policy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3111298/pro-beijing-media-setting-hong-kongs-red-lines-carrie-lams-policy?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Nov 2020 23:30:11 +0000 Prophets of doom are crawling out of the woodwork to declare the death of American democracy. They cite US President Donald Trump’s refusal to admit that Joe Biden won the election as proof the United States has lost its moral authority to preach democracy to others. It’s not just US-bashers who are gloating at the messy aftermath of the election. Even respected commentators such as Larry Diamond of Stanford University and David Frum of The Atlantic have used descriptors like “rot” and “broken”... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3109344/messy-aftermath-trumps-election-defeat-shows-us-democracy-working?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3109344/messy-aftermath-trumps-election-defeat-shows-us-democracy-working?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Nov 2020 19:30:19 +0000 A threat is just that, unless it is followed through. Beijing’s threats are sometimes implicit, other times not. Australia and Sweden, among others, know its wrath. Canada and Britain are the latest targets. Beijing’s threats often combine with the mantra that others must “correct their mistakes” and not “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people”. My local friends jokingly use the Chinese expression “glass hearts” for people whose feelings are easily shattered. Mainland officials should explore... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3107354/beijing-should-ask-itself-why-bno-passport-holders-want-leave-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3107354/beijing-should-ask-itself-why-bno-passport-holders-want-leave-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Oct 2020 23:45:08 +0000 As a child growing up in colonial Hong Kong, I noticed flags at home windows every October 1 and 10. Only when I was older did I understand the different flags celebrated China’s National Day and Taiwan’s Double Tenth national holiday. The Taiwanese flags gradually disappeared, especially after reunification. In today’s Hong Kong, few would dare display one, for fear of violating the national security law and the one-China policy. Some Kuomintang loyalists tried to celebrate October 10 last... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3105433/hong-kong-changing-our-eyes-beijing-just-cant-make-hongkongers-love?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3105433/hong-kong-changing-our-eyes-beijing-just-cant-make-hongkongers-love?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Oct 2020 00:30:11 +0000 Last Tuesday, I was redefined. It wasn’t my choice. The Hong Kong police did it, a redefinition backed by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung. To them, I am no longer what I have been all my working life – a journalist who has worked full-time and as a freelancer for many media outlets. I have worked as a freelancer in Hong Kong, London, Washington and Seattle. I covered Britain’s parliament, the United States Congress, the White House, where I... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3103676/polices-redefinition-media-i-am-no-longer-journalist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3103676/polices-redefinition-media-i-am-no-longer-journalist?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:45:15 +0000 It was painful to watch TV images of sobbing parents pleading for government help for 12 young Hongkongers arrested at sea by mainland authorities while fleeing to Taiwan. What can be more distressful for parents than not knowing if their children are safe or feeling totally helpless while their offspring face an uncertain fate? If the parents were hoping for compassion from our leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, they didn’t get it. She icily told a media briefing two days ago... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3101748/detained-hongkongers-beijing-must-show-its-legal-system-can-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3101748/detained-hongkongers-beijing-must-show-its-legal-system-can-be?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Sep 2020 20:15:10 +0000 Peace has returned to the city. No more black-clad protesters hurling petrol bombs at tear-gas-firing riot police. Our chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, gives credit to the Beijing-imposed national security law, claiming it has brought back the Hong Kong we were familiar with. Wrong. The mass protests are gone but the security law has not restored the old Hong Kong. It has created a new and unfamiliar one. In the Hong Kong that was, people could place flower tributes, like they tried... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3099847/national-security-law-hasnt-brought-back-old-hong-kong-rather-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3099847/national-security-law-hasnt-brought-back-old-hong-kong-rather-it?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Sep 2020 01:15:13 +0000 Rebranding is a tricky business. It involves changing public perception so that something that was good, then turned bad, is seen as good again. The Western perception of Hong Kong has turned so negative that no amount of rebranding can change that, at least in the foreseeable future. The Hong Kong the world knew is gone. It was a brand built over many decades: Asia’s top financial centre with a thriving semi-democracy, a freewheeling media, fearless free speech and unhampered anti-government... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097915/asias-world-city-old-hong-kong-brand-no-more-perhaps-we-should-try?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097915/asias-world-city-old-hong-kong-brand-no-more-perhaps-we-should-try?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Aug 2020 22:45:12 +0000 Sometimes you are kept awake by things that don't affect you personally but affect you emotionally. That’s what happened to me last Wednesday after Hong Kong’s new police unit enforcing the national security law arrested four students for alleged secession. As I lay in bed, trying not to think about what ghastly fate awaits them if convicted, a question kept popping up: how can four youngsters aged 16 to 21 possibly pose a security threat to China, a superpower? The four belonged to the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3096104/beijings-defence-national-security-hong-kong-should-be-open-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3096104/beijings-defence-national-security-hong-kong-should-be-open-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Aug 2020 22:15:06 +0000 Did she really say it or did I get it wrong? To make sure, I watched for myself Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s interview with a Hong Kong television station. It was in Cantonese, which I speak fluently. Yes, she did say it – nothing lost in translation. Without mincing words, Lam admitted bad blood between the government and the opposition was the main obstacle to solving issues such as housing. What took her so long? It’s been common knowledge since the Occupy uprising. Her... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3094184/carrie-lams-policy-pivot-too-little-too-late-heal-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3094184/carrie-lams-policy-pivot-too-little-too-late-heal-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Jul 2020 22:00:08 +0000 It can be quite concerning to have a sword hanging over your head. One wrong move and you’re a goner. It’s even more concerning when you don’t exactly know what a wrong move is. A sword now hangs over Hong Kong in the form of a Beijing-imposed national security law. I never thought of the new law as a sword of Damocles, even though it is sweeping. Rule of law societies aim to use laws to protect citizens, not as lethal weapons. Perhaps Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3092269/uncertainty-and-division-over-national-security-law-cloud-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3092269/uncertainty-and-division-over-national-security-law-cloud-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Jul 2020 22:00:13 +0000 To understand America, you have to be an American or have lived there. There’s a lot to understand about this superpower, which is both reviled and admired. To understand it, you have to understand Democratic blue states, Republican red states, Deep South former Confederate states with their history of slavery and Jim Crow laws that institutionalised racism.  You have to understand the abortion rights Roe vs Wade case, the right to bear arms, the Electoral College that indirectly elects the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090359/george-floyd-protests-are-chance-us-confront-its-racist-history-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090359/george-floyd-protests-are-chance-us-confront-its-racist-history-not?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jun 2020 17:00:16 +0000 The bombshells keep on coming, so fast many Hongkongers – myself included – are in a daze. By bombshells, I mean the flurry of shock waves from the north and its proxies here. In April, Beijing blindsided us. It made clear its institutions here can supervise local affairs even though our government has since reunification held the position that these institutions are subject to Article 22 of the Basic Law. This prohibits departments of the central government from interfering in affairs which the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088420/beijings-national-security-law-right-way-go-about-defusing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088420/beijings-national-security-law-right-way-go-about-defusing?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Jun 2020 22:25:06 +0000 Last Friday, after Beijing dropped a bombshell of imposing a national security law on Hong Kong, a foreign journalist asked if I was scared. As a journalist myself, I have to admit I fear the law could harm my work. When China’s parliament enacts the law, would I still be able to write that I detest the country’s authoritarian government? Would I break the law if I urged the United States to protect Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy that the Basic Law promised? Beijing has only laid out... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086275/why-beijings-national-security-law-hong-kong-leaves-too-many?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086275/why-beijings-national-security-law-hong-kong-leaves-too-many?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 May 2020 22:30:08 +0000 If all the pieces of a puzzle are correctly put together, the puzzle picture becomes clear. Pieces of a puzzle are strewn across Hong Kong's political landscape. Good luck trying to fit them. Even if you succeed, the picture will look like a directionless mess, rather than a road map for our politically shattered city’s future. Events in past weeks and months have proved more than ever before that we are a rudderless ship in a raging sea. What political implications lie ahead when Beijing’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3084173/carrie-lams-talk-infiltration-hong-kong-education-raises-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3084173/carrie-lams-talk-infiltration-hong-kong-education-raises-more?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 May 2020 22:15:07 +0000 Is it meddling, governing or supervising? Any dictionary will tell you the three words have hugely different meanings. But in the murky politics of present-day Hong Kong, the three seem to have become interchangeable. Meddling, in the Hong Kong context, is Beijing poking its nose into the city’s domestic affairs. Governing, in a political context, is running a city or country. But over the past two weeks, supervising has taken on a whole new dimension in our politics. Were Beijing’s top... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3082045/if-carrie-lam-governing-hong-kong-and-luo-huining-supervising-whos?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3082045/if-carrie-lam-governing-hong-kong-and-luo-huining-supervising-whos?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Apr 2020 17:00:07 +0000 US President Donald Trump has long been the world’s punching bag, from late-night talk show hosts and the liberal media to mainland media and internet users. Just last week, The New York Times ran a scathing piece detailing his alleged slow response to the coronavirus pandemic, even after experts warned it could devastate the country. That wasn’t surprising since The New York Times is the liberal left’s attack dog against Trump. What did surprise was an editorial in the conservative The Wall... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3079978/despite-criticism-his-coronavirus-response-donald-trump-better-bet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3079978/despite-criticism-his-coronavirus-response-donald-trump-better-bet?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Apr 2020 19:00:15 +0000 They came in the middle of the night. The police, about 10 of them, swooping on a flat in Kwai Chung. Inside was a sleepy woman. They took her away. A terrorist planning to blow up Government House? No. An American spy fomenting Hong Kong independence? No. Their target was a 60-year-old opposition district councillor, Cheng Lai-king. Her alleged crime? Doxxing a policeman. OK, doxxing anyone is not right. But why grab the suspect in the dead of night? Maybe they feared she was a flight risk. The... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3077900/if-hong-kong-loses-its-freedoms-it-will-lose-its-trade-status-too?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3077900/if-hong-kong-loses-its-freedoms-it-will-lose-its-trade-status-too?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Apr 2020 14:00:15 +0000 What does it mean to be a Hongkonger? Do we even know who we are? I bet none of us can give an honest answer free of political spin. Both questions tugged at me after I rewatched Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s televised address to his nation last month.  When the novel coronavirus spilled out of China to sweep the world, Lee used his February 8 speech to rally his countrymen. He didn’t mince words, warning that the epidemic would be likely to worsen but urged citizens to remain... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075739/coronavirus-absence-singapore-style-leadership-hongkongers-are?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075739/coronavirus-absence-singapore-style-leadership-hongkongers-are?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Mar 2020 19:00:11 +0000 Racism is everywhere. Either get over it or get out of the place where you are being targeted. Fight it, if you want, but moaning about it doesn’t help. Some Chinese in the United States and Europe are telling of racial abuse because the coronavirus, which causes the disease known as Covid-19, originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Whenever people tell me about their own experiences of racism, I always ask if they themselves have ever used racial slurs. I know I have. We’re all racists. It’s a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3064963/chinese-who-cry-racial-abuse-amid-coronavirus-epidemic-forget-they?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3064963/chinese-who-cry-racial-abuse-amid-coronavirus-epidemic-forget-they?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2020 23:00:13 +0000 Forget about being Asia’s world city. Let’s call us Asia’s woe city. It was woefully comical to read about knife-wielding masked men making off with stacks of toilet paper. Singapore, Taiwan and Macau must be sniggering at us Hongkongers. Were the toilet roll raiders suffering stomach pains after bulk-buying frozen foods that had spoiled or were they planning to peddle their haul at inflated prices? They would have made big bucks had the police not quickly recovered the stolen goods. Panicked... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3051377/hong-kong-sinks-new-lows-toilet-roll-heist-will-hardman-xia-baolong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3051377/hong-kong-sinks-new-lows-toilet-roll-heist-will-hardman-xia-baolong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Feb 2020 22:15:14 +0000 Supposing Hong Kong took on the shape of a clean slate. What would you put on it? That’s not a silly question. A clean slate actually awaits us. Never since reunification with China has the city stared a fresh start in the face.  We had a new template on July 1, 1997, when sovereignty passed from Britain to China. But somewhere along the way, things went awry. Poor governance, the inability of China’s leaders to understand the psyche of Hongkongers, and Beijing’s tightening grip fuelled... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3049104/carrie-lam-can-turn-coronavirus-crisis-opportunity-wipe-slate-clean?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3049104/carrie-lam-can-turn-coronavirus-crisis-opportunity-wipe-slate-clean?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Feb 2020 01:00:13 +0000 Lost freedoms? What lost freedoms? Hong Kong’s freedoms are as intact as ever. The city even ranks third globally, well above the United States, in a joint Cato and Fraser institutes’ freedom index.  Those are not my words. Uttering them would betray my conscience. They are the boastful mantra of Beijing loyalists. Why they are called loyalists, I don’t know. Many either hold foreign passports or have offspring who do. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s husband and two sons have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047133/how-has-hong-kong-lost-its-freedoms-let-me-count-ways?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047133/how-has-hong-kong-lost-its-freedoms-let-me-count-ways?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Jan 2020 22:00:08 +0000 Hong Kong has a new boss. No, Beijing hasn’t fired Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. That will happen, but at a time of Beijing’s choosing. For now, if you still believe she is the city’s boss, I can recommend a good psychiatrist. To understand how the Communist Party works, you need to understand how illusions work. Here is an example: the Xinjiang gulags are actually enlightenment camps for Uygurs. The illusion in Hong Kong’s case is that Beijing’s liaison office doesn’t meddle in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3045134/carrie-lam-no-longer-hong-kongs-real-boss-thats-less-worrying-man?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3045134/carrie-lam-no-longer-hong-kongs-real-boss-thats-less-worrying-man?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Jan 2020 22:30:09 +0000 A new year is almost upon us. It’s time to wish everyone a happy 2020. You all please go ahead. I’ll pass. To borrow a quote from Queen Elizabeth, 2019 has turned out to be an “annus horribilis” for Hong Kong. Nothing tells me the coming year will be any better.  Who wants to be the first to say “Happy New Year” to the 13-year-old girl who now has a criminal record for burning a national flag? The government threw the book at her without stopping to ask what would make such a young person join a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3043570/what-can-carrie-lam-and-beijing-look-forward-2020-hint-christmas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3043570/what-can-carrie-lam-and-beijing-look-forward-2020-hint-christmas?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Dec 2019 23:00:12 +0000 There’s this myth that government-imposed patriotic education right after reunification would have prevented the rise of young black-clad protesters fighting to defend their freedoms. A strong believer of this myth is Annie Wu Suk-ching, daughter of Maxim’s founder, who told mainland media that education officials and even parents had failed in promoting national pride.  Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is a believer too. Just last week she said young people need to be schooled in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3041554/patriotic-education-will-never-work-free-thinking-hong-kong-youth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3041554/patriotic-education-will-never-work-free-thinking-hong-kong-youth?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Dec 2019 01:00:07 +0000 Did you feel that fresh breeze sweeping across our city in the early hours of Monday? I did. To steal a phrase from the late United States president Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign, it felt like “morning again” in Hong Kong after months of darkness.  I filled my lungs with it and felt a sudden rush of hope, the hope I thought I had lost. Images of protesters shimmying down ropes and crawling through sewers to escape the police siege of Polytechnic University flashed through my mind. Only a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3039522/election-landslide-protest-vote-against-beijing-violence-will?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3039522/election-landslide-protest-vote-against-beijing-violence-will?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Nov 2019 22:30:10 +0000 Despair, tears and anger – these are the emotions that consume me as I watch the city where I was born burn. I wish I could add hope to this list but that would be lying to myself. How can there be hope when top state leaders tell us they have full confidence in Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as chief executive? It was surreal to watch them praise Hong Kong’s most unpopular leader ever – the author of the tragedy that has befallen us. But enough of Lam. The less I mention her, the less angry I get.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037490/hong-kong-writes-young-protesters-writing-its-future-not-carrie-lam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037490/hong-kong-writes-young-protesters-writing-its-future-not-carrie-lam?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Nov 2019 01:00:11 +0000 When a puppet show loses appeal, the smart thing is to reinvent the storyline. The dumbest thing is to keep the old plot with a few character changes. Audiences will not be duped. Hong Kong is like a puppet show morphing into a Greek tragedy. The puppet strings stretch all the way to Beijing where furious puppet masters insist only a small minority of people brainwashed by the West are booing what is otherwise an excellent show. Still, there is talk Beijing will soon replace Chief Executive... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3035428/replacing-carrie-lam-another-puppet-would-be-pointless-instead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3035428/replacing-carrie-lam-another-puppet-would-be-pointless-instead?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Oct 2019 01:00:13 +0000 It must be a struggle to find a word for a leader who claims a 97 per cent success rate in her first two years in office when the city is reeling from its worst political crisis ever. Delusional? A better word is leitei. The literal translation is “off the ground” but in Cantonese the word means out of touch with reality. Just how out of touch Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is can best be measured in tear gas, rubber bullets, protests – peaceful and violent – and hundreds of young people who face... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033166/carrie-lam-could-have-addressed-five-demands-speech-ages-instead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033166/carrie-lam-could-have-addressed-five-demands-speech-ages-instead?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Oct 2019 01:00:07 +0000 Have you heard the people sing? I have, lots of times. Not the one from Les Misérables or the national anthem that millions sang across China on October 1 to mark its 70th National Day. The one I have heard is the home-grown Glory to Hong Kong, composed anonymously and fine-tuned by netizens. If you think such an online job can’t possibly be meaningful, you’re wrong. The tune, lyrics, and video capture perfectly the spirit of the political movement rocking Hong Kong. That movement reached its... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3031215/give-hong-kong-democracy-do-you-hear-angry-people-sing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3031215/give-hong-kong-democracy-do-you-hear-angry-people-sing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Oct 2019 01:00:10 +0000 Who says violent protests don’t work? They do and have done so in ways unimaginable before the petrol bombs flew. Without violence, would Chinese state media have empathised with Hong Kong’s young protesters by blaming unaffordable housing as the root cause of the unrest? State media had at first accused foreign forces and independence advocates for the uprising. But, with the violence escalating, they’re now blaming Hong Kong’s property tycoons. Aren’t these the same tycoons who long cosied up... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3027838/violence-blew-lid-hong-kongs-simmering-discontent-its-about-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3027838/violence-blew-lid-hong-kongs-simmering-discontent-its-about-time?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Sep 2019 01:15:08 +0000 Hong Kong is sliding from a free society into an authoritarian one. A combination of events last week became the tipping point. In a wave of Friday arrests, police swooped on democracy activists, including lawmakers and Joshua Wong Chi-fung. A day earlier, police grabbed independence campaigner Andy Chan Ho-tin at the airport.  Even as activists were being arrested, police denied permission for an anti-government march the next day by a group which had organised mass peaceful marches. Mainland... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3025504/unrest-will-ebb-hong-kongs-slide-authoritarianism-just-beginning?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3025504/unrest-will-ebb-hong-kongs-slide-authoritarianism-just-beginning?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Sep 2019 01:00:07 +0000 Do Hong Kong people scare easily? We got the answer on Sunday, when an estimated 1.7 million defiantly took to the streets in driving rain, unfazed by threats from Beijing, and by the police declaring the march illegal.  A day before the mass protest, state media released a video of a Shenzhen police drill against rioters made to look like Hong Kong protesters. It was one of several threatening videos showing paramilitary forces firing tear gas and even using Cantonese to warn rioters. Before... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3023698/scare-tactics-beijing-will-only-strengthen-resolve-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3023698/scare-tactics-beijing-will-only-strengthen-resolve-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Aug 2019 22:30:08 +0000 We are fast approaching October 1. This will not be just another national day. Beijing will stage a big bash to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Patriotism is the theme. Will Hong Kong be a party pooper? I fear so, unless Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor extricates us from the political abyss she has plunged us into. She’s got less than two months. So far, she has proved to be a leader who can’t even lead, let alone work miracles. Beijing seethed when... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3021754/can-carrie-lam-or-anyone-defuse-hong-kong-rebellion-national-day?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3021754/can-carrie-lam-or-anyone-defuse-hong-kong-rebellion-national-day?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Aug 2019 01:00:08 +0000 What exactly does an endgame mean? In chess, it means the final stage of a game when just a few pieces are left. On Hong Kong’s chessboard, only three relevant pieces remain as we enter the endgame of our worst political crisis ever – Beijing, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her establishment allies, and the millions of peaceful protesters. Radical protesters who have progressively upped their game – laying siege to police headquarters, storming the Legislative Council building,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3019865/hong-kongs-protest-stalemate-can-only-be-broken-giving-city?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3019865/hong-kongs-protest-stalemate-can-only-be-broken-giving-city?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jul 2019 01:00:13 +0000 Let’s not squabble over who most deserves this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. It belongs to the millions of Hongkongers who marched peacefully on separate occasions to oppose the now dead extradition treaty with mainland China. Who else has a better claim to it? Certainly not US President Donald Trump. I wrote that Trump deserved the prize for reaching out to North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un. He is on the 2019 list, nominated last year by US and Norwegian legislators, even though his... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3017988/hong-kong-people-deserve-nobel-peace-prize-their-dignified-protests?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3017988/hong-kong-people-deserve-nobel-peace-prize-their-dignified-protests?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Jul 2019 01:00:09 +0000 When your chokehold gets ever tighter, you either suffocate your target or it lashes out to survive. Hongkongers, especially the young, feel Beijing’s tightening grip is choking them. They are now lashing out like never before. Call it the final straw. I call it a revolution Hong Kong-style – the vast majority preferring a peaceful show of people power, a minority believing civil disobedience is more effective, and a tiny radicalised faction convinced only violence can bring results. This... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3016106/beijings-tightening-grip-suffocating-freedom-loving-hongkongers-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3016106/beijings-tightening-grip-suffocating-freedom-loving-hongkongers-its?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Jun 2019 22:30:05 +0000 Were foreign forces behind last Sunday’s huge protest march and subsequent violent confrontations against the government’s proposed extradition treaty with mainland China? It’s a claim that’s easy to make but hard to prove. Similar claims were made during the 2014 Occupy protests but remain unproven.  A day after organisers said over a million people joined Sunday’s march – police said 240,000 – China’s ministry of foreign affairs and mainland state media claimed external forces had stirred... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3014140/why-hong-kongs-extradition-bill-not-just-another-law-beijing-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3014140/why-hong-kongs-extradition-bill-not-just-another-law-beijing-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Jun 2019 22:30:09 +0000 If a government exercises its sovereign right to implement its own laws within its own country, can that in any way be construed as meddling in the internal affairs of another country? To me, the answer is a no-brainer. But try explaining that to the Hong Kong government. As a sovereign nation, Germany has every right to grant political asylum to qualified applicants. It concluded after rigidly following its asylum process that two Hongkongers qualified for protection. Yet our government went... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3012249/why-did-germany-feel-need-grant-asylum-hong-kong-riot?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3012249/why-did-germany-feel-need-grant-asylum-hong-kong-riot?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 May 2019 23:00:13 +0000 Some years ago, before the sweeping crackdown on Dongguan’s sex trade, numerous Hongkongers would make trips to patronise the city’s plentiful massage parlours and karaoke bars, where sex workers paraded for customers to choose from. Such pleasures, although illegal, were openly touted. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s corruption crackdown has since cleansed Dongguan, once known as China’s sin city. What if you had indulged in those pleasures but are now an anti-China activist? It wouldn’t be hard... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3010260/how-dongguans-sex-trade-plays-hongkongers-fears-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3010260/how-dongguans-sex-trade-plays-hongkongers-fears-about?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 May 2019 01:00:10 +0000