Thread by @StephenMcDonell

#HongKong’s leader Carrie Lam has announced she won’t “run” for another term (ie won’t be selected by a Communist Party approved committee). This means she will be retiring soon and a new leader will be appointed.

Carrie Lam will be known as the leader who instigated the 2019 political crisis in #HongKong by trying to push through a massively unpopular law allowing for extradition to mainland courts controlled by the Communist Party. She then governed as the upheaval got worse. #China

At the end of a calamitous year in 2019, Carrie Lam and her allies were obliterated at the ballot box (in the only real elections #HongKong had) losing control of all but one local council. She then did #Beijing’s bidding destroying that system to ensure no more proper elections.

But Carrie Lam’s attack on #HongKong’s freedoms went way beyond that, introducing a draconian state security law criminalising certain anti-government slogans, the wearing of certain t-shirts, the singing of certain songs. She has imprisoned scores of pro-democracy activists.

Those imprisoned in #HongKong under Carrie Lam’s (#Beijing’s) state security law include, for example, an activist suggesting on social media that residents light candles to mark the anniversary of the bloody 1989 #Tiananmen crackdown in #China.

Throughout her time in office, Carrie Lam has been known for doing #Beijing’s bidding and her parting gift to the city has been a complete mishandling of the #Covid crisis, trying to impose a mainland “zero Covid” approach for ideological reasons, even when it didn’t work.

Survey after survey have shown Carrie Lam as the least popular leader in #HongKong since the city was returned to #China.

It goes without saying that whoever is chosen (by a committee stacked with #Beijing loyalists) to replace Carrie Lam will also be completely under the control of the Chinese government, just as she has been.

While Carrie Lam has taken her marching orders from #Beijing, it's her name which will be linked to #HongKong's freedoms collapsing. Her administration caused the chaos of 2019, she refused to shift when millions of marched peacefully, driving up violence on the streets... [more]

Then it was under Carrie Lam that a new state security law obliterated all political opposition to the government, squashing the right to protest. She closed media outlets critical of her government and has been nobbling the independence of the judiciary.

The history of #HongKong will show Carrie Lam taking over a city with considerable freedoms and leaving it as place of state oppression, a shell of its former self. #China

#HongKong's next leader?

https://twitter.com/eliotcxchen/status/1510829805092155393?s=20&t=aQWoxGn_uhaO7x0DEqPZ9Q

Some analysis in this piece from me regarding the end of Carrie Lam's time as the leader of #HongKong and what it means for the city... #China. bbc.com/news/world-asi…

Naturally (I would've thought this is obvious) she isn't responsible for everything that happened in 2019 but Carrie Lam did start the upheaval with her extradition plan and refused to change it in the face of millions of people protesting thus contributing to the the escalation.