by Lo Fung

When those in power forced the pan-democrat (pan-dem) lawmakers out of the Legislative Council (LegCo), the pro-Beijing camp, which has now full control, and its supporters should be overjoyed for being able to do what they want; however, several people from the camp have been criticizing Carrie Lam and her administration, as if they wish to start a war with her.

Lawmaker Abraham Shek was one of the more polite ones. He criticized that seeing the Great Bay area as the savior tactic for the Policy Address is not in order. He believed Hong Kong should face the world and show its characteristic as an international city. However, he did not elaborate further and said that he is from the pro-Beijing camp, and therefore he would be “satisfied” whether the Lam administration responds or not. His sarcastic comment sounded mild but has a hidden dig on Lam.

The other pro-Beijing camp members, especially those blue camp KOLs, are not so courteous like Shek and have delivered some no-hold-bar criticism. Some said the anti-pandemic measures the SAR government implemented is like those in the “Stone Age,” questioning whether the epidemic is a natural or human disaster; a KOL has directed the comments at Lam and said she does not understand what the people need, blasted her for not having a clue of what to do facing Hong Kong’s difficult situation; this KOL even said she has no fear for people saying her comments were “against Lam and anti central government,” emphasized “the central government wants to hear the truth,” she will “be the honest child who pointed at the king and said he is naked.” She declared, “I do not belong to the pro-Beijing camp,” to show she rather cut ties with Lam and the SAR government.

It is astonishing to see the pro-Beijing lawmakers and KOL suddenly lashed out at Lam, who has a superior status in the SAR. After all, Beijing senior officials have repeatedly called for more “love country, love Hong Kong” type of strength to support Lam. Now the pro-Beijing camp is not listening to the command and publicly attacking Lam. Something is not right. Some analysis believes someone “with a plan” has deliberately set this up to weaken Lam just before she travels to Beijing to report her work. Some also believe that these offensive comments might be a warm-up for the election of a new Chief Executive and to help to pave the way for a new candidate like CY Leung.

Perhaps first put this speculation of an election aside. It is not surprising to see power struggles within the pro-Beijing camp. First of all, the so-called pro-Beijing camp is just a motley crowd which consists of Beijing communists in Hong Kong, the big businesses and professional elites from the British Hong Kong era, and those “new Hongkongers” who came from the mainland, went abroad after 1997 then returned to Hong Kong. These people have neither anything in common apart from their master Beijing, nor do they share any political platform or vision. All they want is to grab hold of the power and the seats. When the pan-dems were still in LegCo, these people could work together, at least on the surface, and support the government because they had common enemies.

But now, the enemy that is the pan-dems is gone. All these people within the pro-Beijing camp, who never get on with each other, no longer have to hide their differences, annoyance, and disdain. No wonder they started denouncing each other and Lam. Don’t you remember, during their recent group photoshoot, Wong Ting-kwong roughly pulled Priscilla Leung away because he wanted to stand where she was?

The election of a new CE may well be a factor that caused the camp’s inner fight. Lam’s term has a year and a half left. Whether she would continue is already in discussion. People such as CY Leung, who wants to have this “dream job,” and his supporters, of course, need to start setting up the scene. One of the tasks would be targeting the current CE, damaging the credibility the people and Beijing senior officials have of her.

Actually, the challengers do not have to waste their energy to damage Lam’s reputation because her image in Hongkongers’ mind is already so bad it cannot be worse. More than half of the people have given her zero or even negative points. The best strategy would be to play the “competence” card. Lam has always boasted how capable she is. Whether she is facing Beijing, Hong Kong, or the international society, she always has the “I know best” attitude and keeps demonstrating her ability to control situations. If one can weaken her “capable” image so that the Beijing leaders think less of her, then one might be able to pull her down the saddle in 2022 and replace her with one’s favorable candidate.

Therefore, the full-on attack on Lam by the pro-Beijing lawmakers and KOLs is not about political issues, but policy and execution ability issues, including the loopholes and mistakes of the anti-pandemic measures. In fact, in the eye of Beijing, Hong Kong has already become the area within China with the worst pandemic control, even worse than Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang. So the criticism from the KOLs has pretty much hit where it hurts.

The real factor that decides Beijing’s future policy to Hong Kong, including the CE candidate, is still the China-U.S. relations. The Beijing leaders are observing whether the U.S. political situation would change when Biden takes office and replaces Trump, so they would not make any drastic actions or personnel decisions. If the China-U.S. relations start to warm up again in January after the change of president, and they return to a somewhat detente status, then Lam, who is already in the U.S. sanction list, would be an obstacle and might be replaced by Beijing; if the relations are still tense, perhaps Lam could stay on. So before Beijing has a clear indication, the blue camp KOLs will only continue to attack Lam, which will only be getting more fierce.

Click here for Chinese version

We invite you to join the conversation by submitting columns to our opinion section: [email protected]

Apple Daily reserves the right to refuse, abridge, alter or edit guest opinion columns for accuracy, length, clarity, and style, and the right to withdraw and withhold columns based on the discretion of our editorial page editors.

The opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board.

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play