Letters | Hong Kong national security law: the stick is in place, will city get the carrot?
- Common sense suggests the carrot of universal suffrage should be introduced to heal the divisions
Clearly, large swathes of the Hong Kong population distrust her. It is difficult for her to govern credibly when most people did not have a role in choosing her as their leader.
At the very least, our mainland counterparts can point to the incredible economic uplift by the Communist Party as a basis of legitimacy and a source of faith. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) is more than 38 times what it was in 1990. What do Hongkongers have to place their faith in Lam? Because Beijing appointed her? Has Beijing created incredible economic growth in Hong Kong? Hong Kong’s GDP is only 4.6 times what it was in 1990, compared to 5.8 times for South Korea and 10.3 times for Singapore.
Lam needs to own up to the fact that her policies, whether authored by Beijing or not, are not popular in Hong Kong. The only way out for her is to actually enact some popular policies for once.
02:22
Hong Kong freedoms will not be eroded by Beijing’s national security law, Carrie Lam says
Branton Li, London