John Lee's new cabinet is announced, and really does not inspire confidence!

It may have been some time since the riot police were out on

the streets of Hong Kong but this by no means means that 

the situation in Hong Kong doesn't resemble a police state's

 

There's close to two weeks to go before Carrie Lam steps down and John Lee officially takes her place as Hong Kong's Chief Executive but the Chief Executive-to-be couldn't wait any longer to announce his new cabinet (and, in fact, many of the appointments had been telegraphed weeks in advance already).  Suffice to say that John Lee's appointments (or are they actually Beijing's?) don't look great, with some of them being quite alarming.  We're talking, after all, of there being a sizeable number of former police officers among the appointees and four of the officials having been sanctioned by the American government.

 

For the record, former police officers and other uniformed officers (think immigration but also prison system folks) in John Lee's cabinet will include: designated Chief Secretary Eric Chan, who was immigration chief when the Hong Kong booksellers were abducted and has been secretary-general of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security since the national security law was imposed on Hong Kong on June 30th, 2020; former police inspector and now designated Vice Secretary for Administration, Cheuk Wing-hing; incumbent Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs (and Eric Chan's successor as immigration chief) Erick Tsang; incumbent Secretary of Security (and former police chief) Chris "PK" Tang.  And Erick Tsang and Chris Tang are among the sanctioned officials in John Lee's cabinet; with John Lee himself also being in this group.

 

As if this all weren't bad enough consider the remarks on those selected for the health, justice and education posts by people in health, legal and education fields.  The virologist who goes by the moniker Jasnah Kholin on Twitter asserted back in early June that "hearing rumours Pikachu wants to appoint Lo Chung-mau as health secretary, if that's the case congratulations on finding one of the few people *worse* than Clownshoes Wordsalad for that job." (Pikachu is, of course, John Lee's nickname on account of his Chinese personal name being Ka-chiu; while Clownshoes Wordsalad is current health secretary Sophia Chan!)   

 

Among other things, Lo has been flagged as a massive Covid hawk who has been against living with Covid and been a vocal supporter of Covid Zero (see here).  He's also infamous for his part in the shenanigans that ensued at a University of Hong Kong Council meeting back in July 2015; one that turned him a subject of derision and memes galore.  

 

On a more serious note, consider lawyer Kevin Yam's damning Tweeted assessments of Justice Secretary-to-be Paul Lam (along with current legal sector legislative councillor Ambrose Lam: "With former Law Soc Prez Ambrose Lam (who quit after solicitors cast no confidence vote) as legal sector legislator, and Paul Lam (who got voted out as Bar Chair by barristers) as SJ, #HongKong lawyers now have legislative and executive reps who had been rejected by their peers."  And Eric Yan-ho Lai elaborates on why Paul Lam was voted out as Bar Chair: i.e., "Lam’s leadership made little effort to defend [Hong Kong]’s rule of law from Beijing". 

 

And if this doesn't sound bad enough, consider former Chinese University of Hong Kong professor Lokman Tsui's assessment of designated Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin and the Head of the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau, Sun Dong.  For a start, he served a reminder that: "This is the same Choi Yuk Lin who in her previous role as undersecretary for education pushed a "reform" of "national" "education" in Hong Kong back in 2012."  He also reckons that "We can expect her to drive an agenda of "national education" that will teach Hong Kong's youth what it means to "develop moral qualities", to foster "national identity" etc."  

 

Then there's the matter of "Choi also [having] pushed hard to replace Cantonese with Mandarin as the language of instruction in Hong Kong."  Talk about disturbing.  And speaking of Mandarin over Cantonese, journalist Kris Cheng has observed -- also on Twitter -- that "Among the new top official appointments in Hong Kong today, new IT minister Sun Dong... has always spoken Mandarin in public, although he says he knows Cantonese after 20 years in Hong Kong. New development in government, I suppose."  (Sun Dong appears unusual among Hong Kong officials in that he was raised in Beijing rather than Hong Kong, and has (more) degrees from a Mainland Chinese university (Tsinghua University) rather than a Hong Kong or Western institution of higher learning.)  

 

But that's not the reason why Lokman Tsui considers that "His appointment signals really bad news for the future of Hong Kong academia.".  Instead, it's that "According to Sun, head of Innovation, Technology and Industry, the University Grants Committee is a “leftover by the British during Hong Kong’s colonial era”, and he pushed for the removal of foreigners." Put another way: "What Hong Kong academia needs is to become more international, to be more diverse and inclusive, if it is to really produce innovative and creative knowledge (let alone wisdom). What it doesn't need is this xenophobia that Sun is pushing".

 

If all this is getting too dark, consider the ridiculousness of a 50 year old, Alice Mak, having been appointed head of the Youth and District Affairs Bureau.  This is also the Alice Mak who, in 2019, became known for her foul mouth after she lambasted Carrie Lam using choice expletives.  So notable was her foul language that it was actually the subject of a University of Pennsylvania "Language Log" piece!  And no, I'm not going to repeat what she said here as I do try to not be potty mouthed on this blog!