A storm is brewing

Last night was definitely a milestone in the on-going anti-extradition bill incident.

When weekend marches in Hong Kong has already become a routine, what happened in last night definitely has entered into a new territory which has profound impact on what is coming in the future. Needless to elaborate more, they were the vandalization on the China Liaison Office(CLO) in Western by men-in-black and the terror attack in Yuen Long MTR station by men-in-white.

Unlike the previous marches and the aftermath confrontation between the minority protesters and police, the march in last night ended up to be the besiege of the CLO and even vandalization on the China national emblem at the CLO. CLO is the quasi China embassy in Hong Kong. The attack was no ordinary besieges elsewhere in the past thus this is something groundbreaking in the sense that it aims explicitly towards China herself. It is already not a local issue about the people's dissatisfaction on the past governance by the Hong Kong government, nor about the trigger event of the objection on the extradition bill. Apparently forces with otherwise objectives have hijacked the movement into a China-targeting campaign. CLO is a symbol of China's sovereignty in Hong Kong and the attack will definitely be seen as a challenge. Bejing's upcoming responds will definitely bring a significant impact on the further development on the already tensed China-Hong Kong relation.

On the other hand, the men-in-white terror attack in Yuen Long was apparently a well organized and premeditated crime aiming to take the chance to reclaim and share the policing power when the Hong Kong police force is busy on dealing with the large scale confrontation elsewhere. There was a saying that prior to the establishment of ICAC in 1974 especially among the 1950-60s', it was the triads who literally ran Hong Kong under the overseeing of the badly corrupted Royal Hong Kong Police. The triads lost its heyday after the corrupted big bosses in the police were forced to retire after the inception of ICAC. The triad bosses transformed into legitimate businessmen, as and when Hong Kong's economy was entering into its golden 30 years since 1980s', along with their original businesses.

These triad bosses have been longing for and looking for any chance for the returning to their heyday. They hold this hope for good reason because China has a favourable feeling towards Hong Kong triads. Deng Xiaoping and the former chief of the Bureau of Public Security said not only once that some triads were patriots. They saw the golden opportunity when the Hong Kong government fell into a lame duck and the credibility and popularity of the police force has largely undermined now. This situation gives rise to their power to negotiate a better position in running their illegal businesses. The random assault in the MTR train and station was just a flexing of its muscle to showcase how much chaos they can make to the law and order in Hong Kong. It also was meant to tell the police who has the real say in the local community.

While the above two events captured most of the public's attention, there were two news should equally deserve the same concern. The first news was that the police has raided an arsenal found with explosives and other weapons in last Saturday and the other news was the announcement made by the Junior Police Officers Association in the middle of this month urging the senior police management should consider the safety of the front line officers when deploying them in dangerous missions. Do they have any impact on the latest development in last Sunday? You bet!

Carrie Lam is really in a big bowl of hot soup now. She has not only got one hand burnt but the other one as well now. She relies on the police force to deal with the men-in-black as well as men-in-white. On the other hand, the public is strongly requesting an independent inquiry commission which is resisted by the police force. She just got stuck in the middle.


Now these two forces are just in their early stages. A bigger storm is yet to come.