Beijing called a halt to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor reporting on her work in the northern city. As what your author penned earlier, her failure to contain the coronavirus epidemic is one of the reasons. It has now even turned into a topic for discussion about a wrestle between the pro-establishment camp and Lam administration. A source from the political circle indicated the entire event manifests that since the pro-democracy camp having left the LegCo, not only have Carrie Lam and the pro-establishment camp been unable to, as what Tsang Yok-sing said, put up a good show to win over people’s hearts, but also they have laid bare their conflicts of long standing, which has not been stopped by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government(LOCPG), which has also allowed the leftist press to join the criticism. “As a result, the pro-establishment camp found Lam’s Achilles’ heel, which surely has since been got in the cross hairs and attacked by the former until she is toppled.” They even intend to get Beijing embroiled in overhauling Carrie Lam. However, by doing so, another wave of public grievance would be ignited.

The source pointed out “Carrie Lam snitching on the pro-establishment camp in Beijing and the pro-establishment camp being discontent with Carrie Lam closing her eyes to them is already an open secret”. Previously, with the anti-extradition movement on the go, the pro-democracy camp still in the LegCo and the order given by Beijing to prop up Carrie Lam, “even though the two parties were hostile to each other, they were forced to work together”. Yet, since the anti-extradition movement died down and the pro-democracy camp quit the LegCo, “pressure from the government has been mitigated without the opposition camp and the pro-establishment wouldn’t be criticized for favoring the pro-democracy when lambasting Carrie Lam, hence busy looking for any weak points Carrie Lam has”.

Chuckling, he also said a source from the pro-establishment told him that “feuds” between Carrie Lam and pro-establishment camp figures are countless such that “they would remain reticent about the attacks on her although they don’t take part in it. Anyhow, different blocs within the pro-establishment camp want to stop her from renewing her term”. More importantly, the incident has shown to the pro-establishment camp that Carrie Lam cannot do everything with impunity. The source from the pro-establishment camp also said “the criticism of Carrie Lam this time neither stopped by Beijing nor the LOCPG, which even let the leftist newspapers join in, has demonstrated Carrie Lam’s Achilles’ heel – “failure to contain the coronavirus epidemic” - to the pro-establishment camp, thus they keep on dealing blows to her ruthlessly”. So, the source in the political circle is of the view that this “wrestle” will go on for a while “inasmuch as they want to get Beijing involved in overhauling Carrie Lam”. But he pointed out that if Beijing and the leftist really corner Carrie Lam in forcing through compulsory testing for the whole population, “the measure that concerns 7 million people will ignite another wave of public grievance at any time, provided it is poorly handled. By then, Beijing, Carrie Lam and the pro-establishment camp will be put in a lose-lose-lose situation”.

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