appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Michael Chugani

Forget about being Asia’s world city. Let’s call us Asia’s woe city. It was woefully comical to read about knife-wielding masked men making off with stacks of toilet paper. Singapore, Taiwan and Macau must be sniggering at us Hongkongers.
Were the toilet roll raiders suffering stomach pains after bulk-buying frozen foods that had spoiled or were they planning to peddle their haul at inflated prices? They would have made big bucks had the police not quickly recovered the stolen goods.
Panicked people paying sky-high prices for face masks are now a common sight. Nothing shocks any more. Not even a viral video of an elderly man fighting off women for the last pack of toilet rolls in a supermarket. Where has chivalry gone?
Perhaps people should learn from India, where the traditional use of water does a much better and more hygienic job than toilet paper.


We’re always smugly told never to bet against Hong Kong. The city has shown time and again it can always bounce back from adversities. I think those days are over. Who’s going to lead the bounce-back after months of anti-government protests, followed by the coronavirus crisis? Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor? Hold the guffaws.
If invading Martians asked to be taken to our leader, who should we take them to? Lam? Newly installed liaison office director Luo Huining? Or should it be hardman Xia Baolong, new boss of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office?
New Beijing boss should worry local loyalists
Xia served as President Xi Jinping’s deputy when Xi was Communist Party chief of Zhejiang province. His claim to fame is his 2014 demolition of thousands of Christian crosses atop churches in Zhejiang after he took over as party boss. Now Xi has appointed him to oversee Hong Kong.
Don’t worry. Our crosses are safe. In saying that, I am reminded of Lam’s assurances in January that Beijing would ensure Hong Kong’s way of life beyond 2047 as long as Hongkongers, especially the young, understood “one country, two systems”. The trouble is that many people, especially the young, say it is Beijing that is trespassing on the formula.

In any case, tearing down crosses would be a slap in the face of Lam, a Catholic. Not that Beijing would care once it gets rid of her – which I think is only a matter of time – in the same way it fired former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa.
What worries many Hongkongers is not cross demolition but Xia’s mission. Why did Xi appoint a hardline confidante, who far outranks Lam, to essentially take charge of Hong Kong after sidelining the two top officials in Hong Kong and Beijing who oversaw the city?
There is already political spin from loyalists who say Xia’s appointment proves Xi cares so much about Hong Kong that he has appointed a protégé to make sure all is well here. But the question is how to define whether all is well.

Months of massive anti-government protests triggered by Lam’s now-axed extradition bill has infuriated Beijing, which believes, without clear evidence, that foreign forces, particularly the United States, are behind the protests to undermine China’s security. Is Xia’s mission to further tighten Beijing’s grip?
There’s always the off chance that his mission is to understand Hong Kong better after the failure of his predecessor, and perhaps even to reach out to the opposition. To me, that’s wishful thinking. Authoritarian governments don’t loosen their grip when they sense a security threat. They tighten it.
That would further radicalise many in our already politically torn society. A united society which welcomed a flood of free-spending mainland tourists helped Hong Kong bounce back from the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak. But mainlanders are now being treated with animosity.
Hong Kong will not die. It will just chug along. We lack even a single leader trusted by both Beijing and Hongkongers to lead the city to a new dawn. Our glory days are gone.
Michael Chugani is a Hong Kong journalist and TV show host


Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotels sees ‘bleisure’ boom after pandemic curbs, CEO says

US could require US$15,000 bonds for some tourist, business visas

China’s Shenzhen, Guangzhou airports hit record highs, surpass pre-Covid passenger levels

Landmark US Chinatown survived Covid, anti-Asian violence – but tariffs pose new threat

Coronavirus pandemic

As Hong Kong sinks to new lows with toilet roll heist, will hardman Xia Baolong tighten Beijing’s grip on the city?

A couple carry rolls of toilet paper on February 14, Valentine’s Day, in Hong Kong. Photo: AP

A demonstrator holds a picture featuring Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, during a protest against the use of Chun Yeung Estate as a quarantine center in the Fo Tan area of Hong Kong, China, on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020. Hong Kong is facing "tsunami-like" shocks, and may incur a record budget deficit in the next fiscal year as the city counts the costs of the outbreak after months of social unrest, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said a blog post Sunday. Photographer: May James/Bloomberg

Xia Baolong, Party Secretary of Zhejiang province, claps hands during a Zhejiang delegation discussion during 3rd Session of the 12th National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Mar. 7, 2015. Xiao Baolong is announced as the new director of China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020. (China News Service)

Will ‘one country, two systems’ survive after 2047?

Demonstrators run as riot police deploy tear gas during a protest in Hong Kong’s Central district on Sunday. Photo: Bloomberg

As the coronavirus spreads, Hong Kong must fight the epidemic of fear and awaken the Lion Rock spirit

People wearing protective masks walk in front of an advertisement in Causeway Bay on February 6. Photo: Warton Li

(L-R) Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee; Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor; and Secretary for Transport and Housing, Frank Chan Fan, meet the media at the Central Government Offices in Tamar. 11FEB20 SCMP / Jonathan Wong

Beijing’s new man in Hong Kong: how the ‘odd choice’ of Luo Huining could signal a change in thinking

Luo Huining, the new director of the central government’s liaison office, speaks at a news conference in Hong Kong on Monday. Photo: Bloomberg

CORRECTS TO REMOVE THE REFERENCES TO CARBON BLACK AND STEEL MANUFACTURING - In this Nov. 28, 2019 file photo, smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin in central China's Shanxi Province. As world leaders gather in Madrid to discuss how to slow the warming of the planet, a spotlight is falling on China, the top emitter of greenhouse gases. China burns about half the coal used globally each year. Yet it's also the leading market for solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles. (AP Photo/Olivia Zhang)

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters march in central Hong Kong on Jan. 1, 2020, as they continue to seek five demands, including greater democracy, amnesty for arrested protesters and an independent inquiry into police use of force. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan delivers a speech at the 2019 New Economy Forum in Beijing, China November 21, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

(200108) -- BEIJING, Jan. 8, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Aerial photo taken on Jan. 7, 2020 shows a snow view of Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province. (Xinhua/Cao Yang)

(200105) -- BEIJING, Jan. 5, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, is ready for a National Day review of the armed forces as a limousine carrying him drives out of the Tian'anmen Rostrum during the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2019. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Decisive action badly needed as panic over coronavirus grips Hong Kong

An empty shelf at a supermarket in Diamond Hill, Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Opinion

News

Hong Kong


Hong Kong’s leaderless drift continues even as the city battles to contain the spread of the coronavirus and Beijing’s new appointments do not bode well



Hong Kong’s leaderless drift continues even as the city battles to contain the spread of the coronavirus and Beijing’s new appointments do not bode well.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Xi Jinping

Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor

Disease

China’s Communist Party

China leadership

Hong Kong Basic Law

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

As Hong Kong sinks to new lows with toilet roll heist, will hardman Xia Baolong tighten Beijing’s grip on the city?

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Hong Kong’s leaderless drift continues even as the city battles to contain the spread of the coronavirus and Beijing’s new appointments do not bode well

Hong Kong’s leaderless drift continues even as the city battles to contain the spread of the coronavirus and Beijing’s new appointments do not bode well