It is becoming clearer that something has shifted in Beijing’s approach to governing Hong Kong. We pointed out the beginnings of this shift last week, after CE Carrie Lam’s visit to Shanghai and Beijing, where she met President Xi Jinping and her direct report, Vice Premier Han Zheng. She came back more confident, less inclined to give middle-ground statements on the protests. We speculated that it was because the central government had reached a new consensus on Hong Kong, and a change of direction was needed: restrained passive-aggressive interventionism was out; active, overt policy guidance was in.
However, until late yesterday, it hadn’t seemed like the new approach was being timed on a stopwatch. The central government was upping the pressure to introduce national-security legislation, but no deadline had been hinted at.
Then President Xi Jinping interrupted a busy schedule on his overseas trip to comment on the situation in Hong Kong. He reiterated that he wants to see the Hong Kong government and police do whatever is necessary to put an end to the protests. It was no longer just the Hong Kong government’s most important task; it was now its most “urgent,” too.
Continue reading Try harder, Xi tells Hong Kong govt
