Carrie Lam will be gone soon but I don't think it'll actually impact Hong Kong's slide that much :(

  

A placard on July 1st, 2019, that listed 

six demands, not five

 

"No China extradition; Carrie Lam, step down!"  Those were among the demands that could be heard being chanted at the first few extradition bill protests I attended back in the summer of 2019.  On September 5th of that year, Carrie Lam did indeed finally withdraw the extradition bill that had brought millions of Hong Kongers out onto the streets on many occasions that summer.  And yesterday came the announcement from Hong Kong's most popular Chief Executive ever that she will be stepping down/leaving office when her term ends come June 30th as she will not be seeking a second term. 

 

Unlike when Leung Chun-ying announced that he'd be stepping down (back in December 2016), there were no joyous celebrations of the kind that took place at Chater Garden the evening after Hong Kong's third Chief Executive's announcement.  One reason is that many of the people who led the celebrations the last time around are behind bars or have been silenced (by way their being currently out on bail while awaiting national security law trials or having been handed out suspended sentences).    

 

For another, even before obituaries for Carrie Lam's political career had gone to press (see one example here) -- heck, even before Carrie Lam's actual announcement that she would not be seeking a second term -- the identity of the person widely perceived as her successor's come to light.  And, if anything, John Lee's rule looks like it'll be even more repressive than hers.  

 

In addition, especially after China imposed its security law on Hong Kong (on June 30th, 2020), the fact of the matter is that Hong Kong is no longer being ruled "with a high degree of autonomy" by local  leaders.  And even though it's continuing the charade of holding an "election" for Chief Executive on May 8th, make no mistake that the 1,462 voters chosen by Beijing will have their "choices" dictated to by China's rulers.     

 

Don't take my word for it.  Instead, see pro-Beijing think tanker Lau Siu-kai's!  Specifically, he was reported in an RTHK article yesterday as declaring that: "Hong Kong will need a strong leader in the next five years, and... the central government has already decided who that should be."  In his own words: ""Beijing has already prepared for the new person to run Hong Kong within a very short period of time"; and, actually "Beijing might even have made some arrangements for the new team to come into place afterwards"!

 

With regards to the new team: again, I wouldn't be surprised -- even if not happy -- to see another former police chief (and current security secretary), Chris PK Tang, continue his rapid rise to become chief secretary (and the number two official) in John Lee's cabinet.  If so, Hong Kong's status as a police state really should be clear for all to see.  And yes, such as the passing of Article 23, the building of an extension of the great firewall of China to cover Hong Kong and such horrors would be even more guaranteed to happen, and sooner rather than later.     

And while what awaits is truly chilling, the fact of the matter is that the situation in Hong Kong already is not all that great.  Forget, if you can, the raging pandemic (which has killed over 8,000 Hong Kongers as of today) and anti-pandemic measures which has killed a good number of small businesses, and consider the injustices that have been perpetuated by the authorities, including in the courts.

 

A case in point: Five people -- the youngest of whom's aged just 19 years; the oldest of whom is 30 years of age -- were sentenced to up to four and a half years over rioting charges relating to a protest in Wong Tai Sin on October 1st, 2019, by Judge Ernest Lin yesterday.  One of them, 24-year-old Mak Ho-wai, was found with bandage tapes and other emergency first aid equipment on him, and offered emergency care to those in need on the day. Judge Lin sentenced him to four and a half years in prison; in part because "Mak had showed no remorse".  

 

Seriously: why should someone rendering first aid show remorse?  But if you think that's bad enough, consider that another defendant in this case, Kwok Siu-kit, "was said to have stepped on a police officer when he was being chased while climbing across a barrier. There was no evidence to suggest that he had acted violently, and the 30-year-old maintained that he had done nothing wrong."  And yet he was slapped with a starting sentence of four years and six months, that was reduced by three months only after Judge Lin "taking into account [Kwok's] health problems and the fact that he cared for his sick parents"!

Over on Twitter, Elson Tong writes of another problematic case: the "founder of "Free HK Media" Pastor Keung pleaded guilty to assaulting a policeman inside police station. He was released Monday [i.e., yesterday] after being denied bail for longer than his eventual sentence: 2 months..."  "[W]e'll never know how strong the allegations are, as Keung would've stayed in jail far longer if he decided to go to trial. Thus rational defendants plead guilty even if they have a strong defence. Yet bail is increasingly denied even in non-NSL cases. Why? Read the above again"!