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Opinion | Why Carrie Lam has no hope of restoring trust or Hong Kong’s international image
- The world now sees Hong Kong as a city that limits free speech, restricts protests, reins in the media, crushes the opposition with waves of arrests, and freezes bank accounts, all in the name of national security
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Rebuild Hong Kong’s international image. Relaunch the city. Win back people’s trust. That’s not my campaign pledge for political office. I would likely be disqualified even if I chose to run. Those are words from Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s policy speech.
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She must be delusional if she thinks she can restore Hong Kong’s image. The city’s once enviable image is dead and buried. Lam – however highly she thinks of herself – does not have the ability to raise the dead.
Democratic countries in particular now see us as a city that limits free speech, restricts protests, reins in the media, crushes the opposition with waves of arrests, and freezes bank accounts, all in the guise of national security.
Lam’s policy address was two weeks ago. In that short space of time, three leading young activists have been jailed. A pro-democracy media boss was refused bail after the prosecution said that he has “no local connections”, even though he owns property and business here.
A former opposition lawmaker who jumped bail on other charges had his bank accounts frozen on suspicion of money laundering. Eight youngsters who protested peacefully at a university campus were arrested, three on national security grounds.
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Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam jailed, Agnes Chow to spend 24th birthday in prison
Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam jailed, Agnes Chow to spend 24th birthday in prison
Police arrested another eight pro-democracy figures for illegal assembly. And they froze the bank accounts of a Christian church for an investigation into money laundering.
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