🧵Few will miss Carrie Lam as she resigns as Hong Kong leader after five torrid years. My 2018 interview with her was one of the strangest encounters I've had with a senior official-& I've met the weird & wonderful. She just kept putting her foot in it 1/ ft.com
When I asked her which leader she most admired, she told me: “You may say that it’s shoe-shining but I have to say I find President Xi more and more charismatic and admirable." Even if she felt she had to say it, why flag up the shoe-shining? Not a good image to leave. 2/
When I asked about a story that she'd broken down in tears at school when she failed to top her class, she said: “I set very high standards, normally for myself,” she says. “For other people, I try to lower my standards.” Not a great message for the other 7.4mn people of HK... 3/
When I tried to push her on whether she had any empathy for young Hong Kongers who felt let down by the government, she suggested they were driven by envy: “when other people have it, why can’t I?”4/
What didn't make it into the piece was that at the end of the interview she told she'd met the editor of the Financial Times a couple of times, was concerned about the "balance" of some of my reporting and might follow up with him if she had further concerns. Charming! 5/
That, obviously, did not have the desired effect of making me write a more positive piece. But overall, I was left with an impression of someone whose responsibilities, and her interpretation of how to fulfil them, had left her very isolated. 6/
Not many in the pro-Beijing camp got on with her, even if they respected her. As one of her top advisers told me: “She is an excellent administrator but she can come across as rather cold. I’ve never heard her tell a joke.” 7/
Putting aside Lam's leadership flaws, the position of Chief Executive of Hong Kong was set up for failure. Unable to serve the HK public or obtain democratic legitimacy, & unable to rule with the performance legitimacy & authority that the Communist Party has in the mainland 8/
The impossibility of the CE job reflected the deep contradictions of One Country, Two Systems. In some ways it was amazing that Hong Kong's civic freedoms & limited electoral democracy lasted as long as they did. Ultimately, when the end came, it was quick & very painful END
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