It was framed by the government as a ‘back to basics’ speech, showcasing a leader seeking to “strive ahead with renewed perseverance” and an administration re-orientating itself towards the people’s everyday priorities. But to borrow a turn of phrase from Winston Churchill, Carrie Lam’s policy address offered Hongkongers nothing but pessimism, despair and delusion on Wednesday.

Anyone daft enough to tune in hoping for some escapism from the political turmoil will have come away sorely disappointed, if they even managed to sit through the entire 24,000 word ordeal. Some of the audience of pro-Beijing functionaries couldn’t even manage it, with Erick Tsang, Arthur Li and Christopher Cheung being caught variously napping, playing sudoku and ordering HK$9,600 worth of crabs respectively. Everyone’s favourite last horsewoman of the apocalypse Regina Ip being captured raising a wry smile to pictures of Cheung napping was the only genuine highlight of an otherwise dismal afternoon.

Given the address is always so dull, it’s unsurprising that the real action occurred after the event itself. But this did not come in the form of the annual fiery ripostes from opposition politicians, but from bombshells dropped by the chief executive herself in several extraordinary post-address exchanges. In an interview with the SCMP, the chief executive displayed a remarkable shift in tone. Gone are the days of “Hong Kong, I am listening” — the chief executive showed herself to be unrepentant, tone-deaf, and in denial of her starring role in the turmoil, the city finds itself enveloped in. Asked if she had any regrets or sense of guilt over her role in last year’s chaos, the chief executive was unequivocal: “I do not feel guilty. What wrong have I done? I have introduced a piece of legislation for very good reasons. Hong Kong has changed for the good”.

These are truly delusional statements, spat out with venom. In fairness, Lam has achieved the extraordinary while in office — for all the wrong reasons. As the leader of a territory of just 7 million, her decisions and personal failures have had global implications. Let us not forget that above all else, the extradition bill which set this entire saga in motion was Lam’s personal initiative, not a draconian imposition foisted upon the city by Beijing. Her own culpability for the present situation — whilst far from absolute — is beyond dispute. Coupled with the total loss of trust in her by the public and her record-setting unpopularity, the fact Lam now sits as little more than a cover for the mainland officials who are actually running Hong Kong today is thoroughly unsurprising.

During a TV forum on Wednesday evening, Lam also took the opportunity to bury any remaining hopes of political reform, revealing she had “fantasised” about electoral reform in 2017 upon becoming chief executive, but “those bubbles burst quickly”. The reason why political reform was not on her agenda, so she claimed, was twofold: livelihood issues and enhancing national security now take priority. It is a pitiful excuse. Not only is the selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage enshrined in the Basic Law (albeit as an ‘eventual goal’), but it has been promised by both Hong Kong and central government for decades, time and time again, that it is just around the corner. The fact they have now given up the ghost, whilst deeply unsurprising, is nonetheless still significant. It serves as confirmation that Hong Kong’s geriatric, dysfunctional political system will lumber on unchanged, with fresh injections of uninvited mainland support to sustain it.

Returning to the address itself, the chief executive was unusually productive. Lam bombarded the audience with more than 200 policy proposals in the apparent hope it would drown out the usual chorus of criticism, and actually fleshed out a concrete policy vision for the city — supercharging integration with the mainland through the Greater Bay Area concept was the main takeaway. She unveiled a raft of initiatives geared at this, from youth employment schemes encouraging Hong Kong graduates seeking jobs in the mainland, to wage subsidies for Hong Kong technology companies expanding their workforce in cities in the mainland. “The biggest opportunity lies with central government support to tap into the mainland market,” she said. “This is the growth engine”.

In this, Lam betrayed her chronic lack of ambition and belief in the city. What does it say about the chief executive if the extent of her ambitions for Hong Kong is as a feeder-city for Shenzhen and Guangzhou? Hong Kong can do so much better than this. Integration with the mainland would be infinitely more successful and better received by the public if the government simply recognised and sought to capitalise on what makes Hong Kong distinct from the rest of China, rather than seeking to build the city into just another cog in the Chinese economic machine. In short, enhancing and protecting Hong Kong’s status as an internationally-renowned financial and legal centre would do far more for the economy and confidence in the city’s future than ham-fisted attempts to force integration with the mainland. Such an approach is, of course, never going to be adopted.

In his own review of the policy address, RTHK host Michael Chugani noted how “Lam told the media the blue cover of her policy speech represented hope. People buy hope only when it comes from a person who has earned their respect”. This gets at the crux of the issue. Carrie Lam has plumbed new depths of unpopularity, and is respected by virtually nobody outside of the pro-Beijing camp. An alternative policy address could have gone a long way to addressing this by simply offering some modest concessions on political reform and a desire to re-open serious dialogue on the city’s future direction. It need not have capitulated to the pro-democracy camp’s five demands, it just would have required some humility and a modicum of good faith from the chief executive. What a pity she is pathologically incapable of any such gesture.

(Jack Hazlewood is a student and journalist based in London. He previously worked for a localist political party in Hong Kong and served as a field producer for the conflict journalism outlet Popular Front’s documentary ‘Add Oil’, which followed frontline protesters in Hong Kong in the run-up to China’s national day in 2019.)

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