by Fong Yuen

Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing camp and the left media have been blasting Carrie Lam so hard it was like “Bombard the Headquarters” during the Cultural Revolution. Attacking Lam is very harmful to both the CCP and pro-Beijing camp as it shows the CCP has chosen the wrong person and the internal divisions and conflicts within the camp. It was, in fact, the CCP’s last resort.

This event signified the CCP no longer trusts Lam. No one dares to initiate this internal fight other than Xi Jinping because the result would be: no one would believe Lam has a chance to extend her term as Chief Executive (CE).

The death knell has already rung for Lam. The question is only when she has to step down. Allowing her stays until the end of her term means the CCP still has to suffer a lot; ordering her to go immediately makes Xi look bad. What a dilemma.

Lam’s expected departure has excited a lot of people who are keen to replace her. A rumor that CY Leung wants to try his hands on the position again has been spreading wildly as many of his followers have been very active lately. Leung’s intention is obvious, but he should not be CE again because of the following reasons:

When Leung could not get his second term as CE, the CCP compensated him with the position of vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) who is a country’s leader. If Leung is then also given the job as CE, he would be carrying a CCP job title and doing a Hong Kong job at the same time, meaning the CCP directly governs Hong Kong. “Hong Kong people rule Hong Kong” and “one country, two systems” would become a laughing stock. If Leung is allowed to leave the CPPCC post early and return to be CE, it all seems too non-serious and irrational.

Secondly, Leung was obviously forbidden to continue as CE by the CCP back in the day for a reason. If it lets Leung come back, not only it indicates the CCP does not have enough talents, it also means that the CCP was wrong to forbid Leung in the first place. How embarrassing would it be for Xi?

Thirdly, Mr. Ching Cheong wrote in his article earlier that a source revealed Hong Kong Liaison Office had received a piece of highly confidential information in 2004, which said Leung might be a spy for the UK. Apparently, that has caused Leung’s second term as CE. If the information is trustworthy, that means the CCP has already lost its trust in Leung at that time. Therefore there is no reason for Xi to put a time bomb by his side.

Those rumors that claimed Leung is “back on the game” were either spread by Leung’s followers or someone who wants to get Leung into trouble. Either way is not good news for Leung. His followers, who made so much noise at the heat of the moment, must be regretting now.

All four post-1997 CE in Hong Kong have a bad ending. The CCP has tried with businesspeople, administrative officials, and professionals, all of whom left with shame; then it found Lam, and everything has gotten worse. She has turned Hong Kong upside down and made Hongkongers suffered. She even managed to drag the CCP into the biggest political crisis since it took power. In the end, Xi needs to get involved and minimize the damage in Hong Kong. He brought out national security, and with the help of the Wuhan pandemic, the situation finally calmed.

Only Xi knows how much price he has to pay to implement national security law. This evil law has exposed the nature of the CCP, offended the western democratic countries, and pushed most Hongkongers, Taiwanese, and overseas Chinese to the anti-CCP camp. This alone would be bad enough for Xi. Apart from blaming Lam’s incompetence, the CCP must also blame itself for choosing the wrong people.

There are plenty of bootlickers among the government and business sectors in Hong Kong, but none of those have the capacity to take on big responsibilities. How can Hong Kong be prosperous and stable with people like this in the government? Hong Kong nowadays has a large problem with its political direction and utilizing talents. Xi often changes his political directions and has a bad history of picking the wrong people. God helps him.

But how to calm the disgruntled Hongkongers? Millions of protesters call Lam their enemies, and even the “blue” (pro-Beijing / pro-government) camp have been hugely annoyed with her. Lam has no support and watches this city slowly die. After the pandemic, an emigration wave would come. When all the people and their money are gone, Hong Kong will become an empty shell. Its international value would also disappear.

Hongkongers know Hong Kong is sick, so does the CCP. There might be someone who can take Hong Kong out of this difficult time, but it will definitely not be Leung, who should keep counting the paid commercials in the Apple Daily newspaper or giving out rewards to whistle-blowers. This type of sneaky job is more suitable for him.

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