Against impossible odds, Hong Kong youngsters and their supporters among the population, are making a
remarkable stand for Liberty. Ten weeks
and counting, they are resisting a proposed law permitting extradition of Hong
Kong residents to China and demanding the
right to elect their leaders, not having them picked by China.
All four Chief Executives of Hong Kong, ostensibly
legitimized through controlled elections, have been dismal failures.
The first,
Tung Chee-hwa (1997-2005),
resigned during his second term following a futile attempt to impose an
anti-subversion law.
Tung now blames
America for inciting and supporting the resistance.
The second,
Donald Tsang (2005-2012), spent
time in jail on corruption charges after finishing up the balance of Tung’s
term and completing his five-year term as Chief Executive.
The third,
C.Y. Leung (2012-2017), got caught
up in the Umbrella Revolution, was tagged with financial hanky-panky, and
declined to run for a second term.
Now
Carrie Lam, by far the worst, could not leave well enough alone.
She forgot Mao Zedong’s great essay:
A Single Spark Can Start A Prairie Fire.”
She lit the match, poured gasoline on the
fire, refuses to withdraw the proposed extradition law, and reiterates she will
do a better job of listening to the people of Hong Kong in the future to help
restore stability and prosperity. Credibility gap, anyone?
Carrie Lam, her government, the Hong Kong
Police, and China have all lost face.
If
this all ends badly, as happened in Tiananmen, Lam will go down in history as
the woman who destroyed Hong Kong.
Lam
should have retired to Britain with her family in 2012 as she then hinted she
might.
Hong Kong residents are risking life and limb to maintain their
civil liberties (echoing
Patrick Henry).
Indeed, were a referendum held with two options, (1) restore British
rule or (2) continue as a Special Administrative Region of China, Hong Kong residents
would doubtless choose Britain.
Must be
a bitter pill for Chinese President Xi Jinping to swallow.
Too bad he didn’t learn from China’s great
leader Deng Xiaoping, who invented the “One Country, Two Systems” formula.