The extradition bill, which would have covered Hong Kong’s seven million residents as well as foreign and Chinese nationals there, was seen by many as a threat to the rule of law in the former British colony.
Around a million people marched through Hong Kong last Sunday to oppose the bill, according to organizers of the protest, the largest in the city since crowds came out against the bloody suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations centered around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Demonstrations continued through the week and were met with tear gas, bean bag rounds and rubber bullets from police, plunging the Asian finance hub into turmoil and piling heavy pressure on Lam.
“After repeated internal deliberations over the last two days, I now announce that the government has decided to suspend the legislative amendment exercise, restart our communication with all sectors of society, do more explanation work and listen to different views of society,” Lam told a news conference.
In her first public appearance or comments since Wednesday, she said there was no deadline, effectively suspending the process indefinitely.
Political opponents called for the bill to be scrapped completely. Protest organizers said they would go ahead with another rally on Sunday to demand Lam step down.
The about-face was one of the most significant political turnarounds under public pressure by the Hong Kong government since Britain returned the territory to China in 1997, and it threw into question Lam’s ability to continue to lead the city.
It also potentially alleviated an unwanted headache for the leadership in Beijing, which is grappling with a slowing economy and an all-consuming trade war with the United States.
Asked repeatedly if she would step down, Lam avoided directly answering and appealed to the public to “give us another chance”. She said she had been a civil servant for decades and still had work she wanted to do.
She added that she felt “deep sorrow and regret that the deficiencies in our work and various other factors have stirred up substantial controversies and disputes in society”.
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Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, plans to delay efforts to pass a controversial new extradition law, local media reported, as US presidential hopeful Joe Biden praised protesters and warned that the “world is watching”, Guardian reports.
Media outlets, including the South China Morning Post, public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong and pro-Beijing Sing Tao newspaper, reported that Lam will hold a press conference to announce her plans on Saturday afternoon.
They suggest that she plans only to delay the law, rather than shelve it entirely, probably in the hope that time and further consultations will defuse the power of opposition. With the legislature due to go on summer recess in July, it would not be picked up again for several months.
Even a delay to the law would be a major climbdown. Lam has not spoken publicly since Wednesday evening, when she doubled down in defence of the extradition bill and criticised protesters who had endured a day of tear gas, rubber bullets and police beatings as “spoiled children”.
Hong Kong has been plunged into crisis by government attempts to ram the law through the territory’s legislature. Hundreds of thousands of protesters thronged the city’s streets this week to oppose it, with police brutality and government intransigence adding to public outrage.
Opponents of the law say it would fatally undermine Hong Kong’s economy and way of life by allowing both residents and visitors to be sent to China for trial in opaque courts controlled by the Communist party.
On Friday night Biden paid tribute on Twitter to the “extraordinary bravery” of protesters. “The world is watching. All of us must stand in support of democratic principles and freedom.”
But with another major protest planned for Sunday, and huge international interest in the confrontation on Hong Kong’s streets, Lam and officials in Beijing appear to have decided the political cost of temporary retreat would be less than that of further confrontation.
Lam met one of China’s most senior politicians, Han Zheng, in the 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.
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