The most obvious casualty of Hong Kong’s extraordinary uprising against chief executive, Carrie Lam, and her campaign to tie the city more closely to China, will be the bureaucrat-turned-politician’s own career. If she stays on, it will only be as a lame duck leader. But the city’s turmoil is also a major challenge to her boss and patron, Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Lam has been at pains to paint herself as an independent actor in the crisis, and as it unfurled Beijing has publicly doubled down on its expressions of support for her. But neither of those positions are entirely honest. The show of political power by Hong Kong’s population, and Lam’s humiliating climbdown over a controversial extradition law, are a major headache for Xi, a ruler who has pursued an increasingly nationalist, autocratic agenda since becoming premier of China.
Lam has been at pains to paint herself as an independent actor in the crisis, and as it unfurled Beijing has publicly doubled down on its expressions of support for her. But neither of those positions are entirely honest. The show of political power by Hong Kong’s population, and Lam’s humiliating climbdown over a controversial extradition law, are a major headache for Xi, a ruler who has pursued an increasingly nationalist, autocratic agenda since becoming premier of China.
