Hong Kong protestors have pulled off an astonishing victory in the battle to force their government to walk back a proposed extradition bill that bodes ill for the city's future.

However, the struggle to preserve the status quo that Beijing promised at the handover of the former British colony, is set to continue.

A victory, but a long struggle ahead

The monumental protest on June 16 — which drew about two million people to the streets, according to the organisers — took place despite the bill's infinite suspension being announced the day before.

The equivalent of one member of every household in this city of seven million people took to the streets.

Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam had to issue a public apology for her administration's deficiencies. It was a noticeable shift from her expression of "sorrow and regret" less than 24 hours earlier.

The rapid cave-in by Ms Lam's Government served as proof that people power still works in China's "special administrative region" (SAR).

Demonstrations against the proposed changes have been monumental. ( AP: Vincent Yu )

This is much to the relief of the disillusioned many after a pre-democracy Occupy Central movement was suppressed by the Hong Kong government five years ago.

One former student leader confessed, "I'm most afraid Hong Kong people will not care anymore".

The protests in the past two weeks, "Occupy 2.0" as billed by local press, was more than a mere revival of Occupy activism.

It's the most definitive sign yet that street protest has become special modus operandi for Hong Kong people to fight for their civil rights and extract political concession.

Political activism is now woven into the social fabric of a way of life long known to prize utilitarian values. Cyclical protests can be expected whenever coercion is felt.

This will make Hong Kong SAR even more wayward in the eyes of the Communist Party leadership in Beijing.

Where is Xi Jinping?

If the central Government hasn't vented any overt anger over mass protests in the street, it's because top leader Xi Jinping has got too much going on right now.

He was in Central Asia seeking to shore up regional security framework when Hong Kong streets were boiling, and is heading for Pyongyang tomorrow for his first state visit to North Korea, before a head-to-head, high-stakes trade talk with Donald Trump later this month in Japan.

Xi Jinping (centre) has meetings planned with US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. ( Reuters/ KCNA )

The distraction of the Hong Kong protests couldn't have happened at a worse time. The leadership in Beijing would not want to simultaneously handle "enemy within" and "enemy without".

So far, Beijing has focused its anger on unspecified "foreign forces" allegedly inflaming tensions on the street.

And what is next for Lam's leadership?

Overall, Beijing's response has been eerily standard.

The authorities in charge of Hong Kong affairs voiced "support, understanding and respect" for the Lam administration's widely criticised handling of the crisis.

But that can't be taken too literally.

It likely only shows Beijing is buying time to think up better strategy.

Beijing also "firmly supported" her predecessor Chun-ying Leung's hardline approach on Occupy protestors at the time, before eventually nudging him out of a second term.

It's also easier to compartmentalise this time than five years ago.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 4 minutes 26 seconds 4 m 26 s Hong Kong identity is torn between two stakeholders ( Sean Mantesso )

The Occupy Central centred around Hong Kong's electoral reforms, something more consequential than the extradition bill, which would provide greater technical support for Beijing's governing over Hong Kong.

China's ambassador to the UK told the BBC last week that Beijing never initiated the bill. And it's not unlikely an eager-to-deliver Ms Lam took the initiative to put forth the bill in February.

There were unconfirmed reports that she met with the Communist Party's top official on Hong Kong and Macau affairs shortly before her Saturday concession.

But the central Government hasn't adopted some key phrases used by the Hong Kong Government, such as labelling the protestors as "rioters".

The mainland officials opted for "violent behaviour" or even "social reaction".

Ms Lam may be safe for now, but there is little doubt Beijing is having a new assessment of her capabilities.

Whatever political capital she has gained by acting as a good "parental" leader has been lost.

The successful landing of Hong Kong on the front page of international press for all the wrong reasons was no laughing matter for Beijing's leadership as it faced an intensifying geopolitical rivalry with Washington.

It is suggested Mr Trump might play the Hong Kong card in the fraught trade negotiation.

Also, the controversy over the extradition bill served as an acute reminder of China's flawed judicial systems. This is not something Beijing would like to share when it's trying to make more friends.

This is incompetence on a scale that's hard to overlook.

Broken trust

Did Beijing pick the wrong person to lead Hong Kong? ( AP: Kin Cheung )

Inside Hong Kong, trust is completely broken between the Lam Government and its citizens.

Protestors are still demanding her resignation. Her lack of political judgement, such as only allowing a 20-day consultation on such a critical bill, makes her unfit to govern a people whose sense of political participation is only growing.

Beijing must also be reflecting on why they always pick the wrong person to lead Hong Kong.

It doesn't take a political scientist to figure that out.

An authoritarian regime could only pick a paternalistic leader, which is fundamentally at odds with a Hong Kong population whose political awakening five years ago has now firmly taken root.

Ting Shi is a Hong Kong-based journalist and honorary lecturer at Hong Kong University's journalism school.