Coronavirus crisis: Why Beijing won’t fire Carrie Lam for botching the job again

The central government recently shuffled officials related to Wuhan and Hong Kong but the axe is unlikely to fall on the chief executive. Beijing will find it hard to find a replacement who can rally enough support from a divided city

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Chief Executive Carrie Lam announces on February 8 that travellers from the mainland will be quarantined for 14 days. Her government is so unpopular that it can do no right. Photo: DPA

Albert Cheng

Ir.

Published: 6:00am, 21 Feb 2020Updated: 6:42am, 21 Feb 2020

On Monday, three knife-wielding robbers stole 600 toilet rolls from a delivery worker outside a supermarket in Mong Kok. The coronavirus outbreak has clearly driven some individuals to foolish behaviour, but it is the one behind the steering wheel – Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor – who is fully to blame. In the past eight months, Lam’s administration has completely lost of the trust of Hongkongers. Caught in the “Tacitus Trap”, the government is so unpopular that it can do no right.

The city is panicking due to a lack of transparency regarding medical supplies and daily necessities. Many are scrambling for essentials over fears that border restrictions to contain the coronavirus might choke off supplies.

With the outbreak, Lam had an opportunity to rectify the mistakes she made in pushing the notorious extradition bill last year, wreaking havoc in the city and endorsing the police’s excessive use of force against protesters. Given the city’s experience of severe acute respiratory syndrome, she was expected to handle the current crisis swiftly and regain the public’s trust. However, she is once again failing.