Carrie Lam says legislation that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China ‘caused a lot of division’

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has been forced into a humiliating concession after a week of mass protests, promising to indefinitely suspend efforts to pass a controversial new extradition law ahead of another demonstration that has been called for Sunday.

Lam’s announcement represented perhaps the most serious government climbdown in the face of public pressure since a security law was dropped in 2003, an important democratic moment for a city where people are free to demonstrate but not able to choose their leaders.

However, opponents warned they saw it more as a tactical retreat than an admission of defeat, aimed at buying time to intimidate or demoralise opponents. There have already been reports of arrests in hospitals, as people sought treatment, and of digital activists.

'Beijing's puppet': Carrie Lam faces reckoning in Hong Kong Read more

“You can say it was a partial victory, in the sense she has halted this bill at this moment,” said the opposition lawmaker Charles Mok.

“We are not celebrating. Many of us were still not satisfied that she hasn’t withdrawn it completely, and the way she talked about police [brutality].”

He joined other activists and critics in urging residents to take to the streets again on Sunday to keep up pressure on the government and chief executive. Lam has proved a lightening rod for protesters, with many demanding her resignation.

In a combative press conference after three days of silence, Lam repeatedly described herself as “heartbroken”, and admitted that the bill had “caused a lot of division” in Hong Kong.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People attend a Hong Kong rally in support of demonstrators protesting against the proposed extradition bill. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters

But she insisted her only errors were of communication, defended the law as vital to security and promised to relaunch an improved version after further consultation. She also played down the size of demonstrations and repeatedly claimed police use of force was defensive.

Earlier in the week she added fuel to public anger when she doubled down on support for the law and criticised protesters who had endured a day of teargas, rubber bullets and police beatings as “spoiled children”.

Her abrupt reversal – reportedly made after meeting with one of China’s most powerful leaders on Friday – was apparently aimed at warding off further chaos on Sunday, although Lam denied she was trying to appease the crowds.

“The decision I made is not about pacifying people or, as some have said, restoring my damaged reputation,” Lam told journalists, claiming she acted to stop violence escalating. “This is time to restore as quickly as possible calmness in society.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Carrie Lam. Photograph: Jérôme Favre/EPA

The rise in tensions was almost entirely self-inflicted, after Lam tried to ram the hugely unpopular bill through the legislature before it broke up for the summer, leaving minimal time for consultation or debate despite its sweeping implications for everyone from dissidents to entrepreneurs.

If the extradition bill becomes law, it would allow both residents and visitors to be sent to China for trial in opaque courts controlled by the Communist party. Critics say that would destroy the judicial “firewall” that protects Hong Kong, and fatally undermine its economy and way of life.

Some Hong Kong tycoons have already started moving assets abroad amid concern about the extradition law, Reuters has reported, citing financial advisers, bankers and lawyers.

Lam’s hurry was ostensibly aimed at bringing to justice a man who brutally murdered his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan, but authorities there worried it could affect their sovereignty and so said they would not use it.

In response, hundreds of thousands of protesters thronged Hong Kong’s streets to oppose it at the weekend and prevent legislators reaching parliament Wednesday to vote it through.



Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) The extraordinary bravery shown by hundreds of thousands in Hong Kong, marching for the civil liberties & autonomy promised by China is inspiring. And the world is watching. All of us must stand in support of democratic principles and freedom.

The scale of the protests prompted intense international scrutiny, with the US presidential hopeful Joe Biden the latest figure to weigh in on the showdown, praising protesters’ bravery and warning officials that the “world is watching”.

Lam and officials in Beijing now appear to have calculated that the political cost of temporary retreat and caving to public pressure would be less than that of further confrontation.

Lam met one of China’s most senior politicians, Han Zheng, in the Chinese border city of Shenzhen on Friday night to discuss the situation, the pro-Beijing Sing Tao reported. Zheng is the central government’s point man on Hong Kong, a vice-premier and one of just seven members of the elite politburo standing committee.

The legislature is due to go on summer recess in July, and Lam said it would not be possible for lawmakers to examine the bill within this year; it is possible it will not be reopened for even longer.



“It looks unlikely they would dare to resume the controversy in the near future, not within this year,” said Claudia Mo, another opposition lawmaker, although she feared the bill would return. “A suspension is essentially a postponement. They are just delaying the pain.”

Others were more hopeful that, particularly if public pressure continues, the government might back away permanently as it did after mass protests about a new security law in 2003.

“There is some historical precedent here. Article 23 that was supposed to regulate national security was also indefinitely shelved, and it hasn’t come back since,” said Lokman Tsui, Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“So if you look at that, it might mean that it won’t come back. But at the same time, I think people are right to insist on more forceful language including the actual retraction of [the law].”

Organisers of Sunday’s march said it was going ahead and called on Hong Kong residents to turn out again in large numbers, to protest police violence and a round-up of many demonstrators, as well as the law itself.

“We saw so many innocent citizens subject to police force,” said Sham Tsz kit, convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, which is helping organise the demonstration.

“Our anger is unprecedented, we call on people to protest tomorrow, we need to tell people we are guarding Hong Kong,” The group has also set up a trust to support arrested and injured protestors.

A small crowd of protesters already gathered near government headquarters on Saturday said they had no faith in Lam’s promises of greater consultation, and were bracing for a long fight.

“It’s a temporary measure to cool our anger. I don’t believe them,” said 63 year-old Alexandra Wong. “Even if they don’t properly launch this again, they are only going to use more shameful, hidden ways to sneak the agenda back in.”