Stupid vs smart

HSI rocketed almost 1000 points in the day before yesterday when there was speculation that Carrie Lam, the chief executive of HKSAR, would announce certain back down after the trading hours of the Hong Kong bourse. Withdrawal on the long debated extradition bill finally came true when Lam threw in the towel at a pre-recorded TV press release in the same evening. However the belated move did not earn applause but criticism instead. The opposition camp condemned Lam for the damages that she brought to Hong Kong in the past three months due to her stubbornness, rigidity and arrogance on the public opinion.

In the broadcasting, Lam appeared weary and short of spirit. Undoubtedly she must has gone through very hard time during the past few months especially the past August when the confrontation between the radical protestors and the police escalated into a new height. Pressure from the North to settle the chaos in its soonest was mounting but on the other hand Beijing's tie on Lam's hand for concession just drove her crazy. Lam's listlessness did come with good reason because she knows well just the withdrawal itself will certainly not meet the request from the public on the five demands. Her ordeal is far from over.

It is widely believed that Lam is forbidden on any concession on the five demands without the consent from Beijing so her announcement on the withdrawal is definitely not at her own discretion. This is really an extremely stupid decision to make concession on withdrawing the proposal of the bill only. The move not only fails to ease the tension between Lam's administration and the public when the slogan "all five demands or nothing" has been deeply rooted in the protestors' mind but also produces a speculation that when Lam backed down on the withdrawal then she will eventually have to do the rest.

Even any greenhand in public relationship field knows that for any PR crisis, it must be dealt with immediately and straight to the specific point. On the other hand, if a politician does something only because of the pressure from his/her opponent then he/she can only be in the underdog position. However, Lam and her boss in the far North committed these two mistakes. People just can't help but puzzling why on earth the top leadership of the world's second largest economy would commit such stupid and elementary mistakes.

For anyone who buys the saying that the anti-extradition bill movement at its later stage was hijacked to be the U.S.'s Hong Kong card against China will agree that apparently the former is playing this game far more smarter than is the latter. In the beginning the movement was solely a locally sprouted one originating from the distrust on Beijing but the U.S. capitalizes on this sentiment as well as the many long-existed social issues in Hong Kong to brew the movement into an anti-China campaign. The most ingenious part of the game is that the battle field is not in the U.S. but in Hong Kong which is also the China's soil. Therefore the U.S. can have the cake of either that when its plan works out then Hong Kong card can deter China's rising and even if the plan fails, the damages to Hong Kong arising from the recent chaos do not hurt the U.S. at all so it has nothing to lose but could possibly succeed in combating China if in luck. People once said the British is best in playing politic but it seems the American has already outpaced their relatives since they defeated the British Empire. In politic gaming China appears like a primary school student comparing to her American counterpart.The U.S. can rest relieved that China is in no way capable to challenge its alpha status.