Tian Feilong, the director of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, and Ip Kwok-him, a former member of the Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), exchanged fire across the air over Tian’s “loyal garbage” comment. Many people in the political circle are grabbing some popcorn as they sit back and watch the development. However, some people think that not only has Tian not retracted his remarks, but he has instead continued to raise the level of the discourse, which suggests that the statement may not be just his personal opinion. “Even if it is not a clear-cut attitude, it must be Beijing’s direction to rectify the pro-establishment camp.” It is not difficult to find traces of the loyal garbage narrative in some of Beijing’s official statements, “and the target is not only the pro-establishment camp, but also Hong Kong government officials.”

The said politician pointed out that after Beijing proposed patriots ruling Hong Kong and electoral reforms for the city, the pro-establishment camp only saw more political benefits in the future, so they were naturally overjoyed. It seems that they have not paid attention to the fact that every time Beijing mentions patriots ruling Hong Kong and changing the election system, there is actually more to it, that is, “it also places higher demands on the ability and standard of the SAR’s governing team.” This statement indicates that after the electoral system is reformed in the future, Beijing will have another set of criteria to assess the competency of the pro-establishment camp and Hong Kong officials.

Of course, no one knows what these criteria are, but the politician said, “If you look at it this way, this means that there is a higher demand for competency and quality.” In other words, we will no longer use the same set of criteria to appraise the capacity of the pro-establishment camp and Hong Kong officials. This is consistent with the concept behind Tian Feilong’s loyal garbage comment. “That is, by the new norm, a lot of the pro-establishment and Hong Kong officials are ‘garbage’ level, and according to Tian, these people will either need to upgrade themselves or be asked to retire early.”

A pro-democracy activist also said that, in fact, many people in the pro-establishment are not only offended by the loyal garbage remark, but at the same time, they are worried about being the said “garbage” in the eyes of Beijing. “According to a member of the pro-establishment camp, everyone is well aware that in the past they have been snitched on many times, and they themselves have stabbed many Hong Kong officials in the back, so both sides have a flood of kompromat.” This democrat believes that when the pro-democracy camp completely disappears from the establishment, “it will then become the time for ‘garbage’ of the pro-establishment and Hong Kong officials to be kicked out.”

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