Johnny Patterson

When Carrie Lam became Hong Kong's chief executive in 2017, she positioned herself as a candidate for unity. Five years on, having announced this morning her decision to step down, she will be remembered as Hong Kong’s most divisive leader.  There is a grim irony that Lam – who was Beijing's favoured choice for the top job – used 'WeConnect' as a campaign slogan. If that was her hope, it is hard to think of a politician who has failed in their ambitions more profoundly. Lam’s stubborn insistence in pushing through a wildly unpopular extradition bill in 2019, which would have allowed Hong Kongers to be extradited to the mainland, did overwhelmingly unify Hong Kongers, if only against her.

In the dead of night one of the most prominent memorials to the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Pillar of Shame, was removed from Hong Kong University this week. The eight-metre high statue – commemorating the thousands killed in Beijing’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in June 1989 – was filmed being loaded into a container late on Wednesday night. It is not the only piece of public art to have been targeted. At dawn on Christmas Eve a bronze ‘Goddess of Democracy’ – a replica of a statue built by students on Tiananmen square – was dismantled by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. And at Lingnan University a wall relief featuring the ‘Tank man’ was removed during the night.

Every year since the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989, Hong Kongers have gathered in their thousands to remember the fallen. The annual Tiananmen Vigil, where candles light up Victoria Park, was an event laden with significance. It was a statement that Hong Kongers would not forget those who had died under the heavy boot of the totalitarian state. It was a symbol of the city’s distinctive history and its autonomy from Beijing. Even last year, despite the authorities banning the protest under the pretext of Covid-19 restrictions, thousands gathered peacefully. It's unlikely the same will happen tomorrow. The organisers of last year’s vigil are in jail. This year’s vigil has been banned.

Earlier this morning, 53 democrats from Hong Kong were arrested. Their crime? Trying to win last September’s elections. As absurd as it sounds, the new reality in Hong Kong is that it is now effectively a criminal offence, under the National Security Law, for the opposition to have the audacity to try and boost its representation in parliament. 'The operation today targets the active elements who are suspected to be involved in the crime of overthrowing, or interfering (with)...the Hong Kong government’s legal execution of duties,' said John Lee, Hong Kong’s security minister. But, as he later suggested, in reality this meant that those who were arrested were simply trying to win a majority of seats in Hong Kong's legislature.

Hong Kong, ‘Asia’s World City’, is becoming a place where legislators fear that they could face years in prison for talking to politicians from other countries, including British MPs. So many of us have fond memories of Hong Kong. Dynamic and vibrant, the city is a melting pot of different cultures, which represents the meeting point of East and West. Yet in recent days, the mood in Hong Kong has soured. Moral, courageous people now face the choice of standing up and risking arrest; or staying quiet and giving up on their way of life as they know it.

The coronavirus has enforced a hiatus in Hong Kong’s widespread political unrest with worries about transmission stalling protests. Dissatisfaction with the government still festers, fuelled by the mishandling of the health crisis - all the ingredients are there for protests to reignite. But the lull in the unrest gives the Hong Kong government and their counterparts in Beijing a window of opportunity. It is imperative that the British government encourages all sides to grasp the next few months as a moment for reconciliation. President Xi Jinping has been busy using this space to reshuffle the officials overseeing Hong Kong from Beijing’s side by appointing loyalists Xia Baolong and Luo Huining.