Carrie Lam listened to 19 Hong Kong elites after ignoring millions of marchers in June – that’s why the bill withdrawal has solved nothing

If only Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had decided to announce the government’s plans to withdraw the extradition bill on the evening of June 9, when a million people peacefully took to the streets. Had she done that, instead of issuing the statement that the government would proceed with the second reading of the bill, we would not be where we are today: so desperate that the government is spending public money on
full-page ads in overseas newspapers to reassure investors that Hong Kong “remain[s] a safe, open, welcoming and cosmopolitan society and an internationally connected, vibrant and dynamic economy”.

If only the chief executive and her cabinet had made the right calls, and acted on them on time, the city wouldn’t have been left to implode. But there is no “if only”. There is only the devastating, if not irreparable, carnage left behind by an incompetent, stubborn and
arrogant chief executive. The damage is so deep and widespread that no one knows how long it will take for Hong Kong to bounce back again.

Read more