July 18 -- Prospect Magazine
On the morning of 1st July, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s beleaguered Chief Executive, clinked champagne flutes with two of the city’s past leaders on stage in a cavernous convention hall. The ceremony, marking the 22nd anniversary of the territory’s handover from Britain to China, was moved indoors for the first time, officially because of bad weather.
Outside, no rain was falling. Just a few miles away though, tens of thousands of protesters were mobilising for yet another public rebuke to Lam—and her purported masters in Beijing. Over the previous month, protesters had occupied major thoroughfares, twice laid siege to police headquarters and held record-breaking marches. Later on that same day, a group stormed the offices of Hong Kong’s legislature after hours spent pounding on tempered glass doors and windows. For many here, it was an understandable—if not condoned—show of frustration towards a government that refuses to listen.
Full story here.
Comments