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Hong Kong’s Leader, Carrie Lam, to Withdraw Extradition Bill That Ignited Protests

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‘The Government Will Formally Withdraw the Bill,’ Hong Kong Leader Says

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced on Wednesday that the government would withdraw an extradition bill that led to months of protests in the city.

Incidents over these past two months have shocked and saddened Hong Kong people. We are all very anxious about Hong Kong, our home. We all hope to find a way out of the current impasse and unsettling times. First, the government will formally withdraw the bill in order to fully allay public concerns on dropping charges against protesters and rioters, and shelving prosecutions. I have explained that this is contrary to the rule of law and is not acceptable. Our foremost priority now is to end violence, to safeguard the rule of law and to restore order and safety in society. As such the government has to strictly enforce the law against all violent and illegal acts.

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Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced on Wednesday that the government would withdraw an extradition bill that led to months of protests in the city.CreditCredit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Austin Ramzy and

HONG KONG — Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said Wednesday that the government would withdraw a contentious extradition bill that ignited months of protests in the city, moving to quell the worst political crisis since the former British colony returned to Chinese control 22 years ago.

The move responds to a major demand of the protesters, who feared China would exploit the measure to extradite suspects for prosecution in China’s opaque judicial system. But it was unclear if the concession would be enough to bring an end to intensifying demonstrations, which are now driven by multiple grievances with the government.

“Incidents over these past two months have shocked and saddened Hong Kong people,” she said in an eight-minute televised statement broadcast shortly before 6 p.m. “We are all very anxious about Hong Kong, our home. We all hope to find a way out of the current impasse and unsettling times.”

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Who Is Carrie Lam, the Leader of Hong Kong?

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, has earned a reputation as a tenacious politician in her nearly 40 years in government. But her close ties with China’s central leadership have made her a divisive figure at home.

A workaholic who sleeps 3 to 5 hours a night … … who won support from China’s central leadership … … and struggles with protests at home. Carrie Lam is Hong Kong’s embattled leader. So, who is she? Lam is a devout Catholic who grew up in a working-class area of Hong Kong. After graduating from an elite university, she joined the civil service. She’s held 21 posts in her 39-year career and developed a reputation as a good fighter who could push through policies. In 2012, she became second in command of Hong Kong. As chief secretary, Lam faced her biggest test when China’s legislature unveiled a controversial proposal. It would allow all Hong Kong residents to vote to choose their leader, but only after Beijing shortlisted the candidates. How did Hong Kong residents respond? Universal voting rights is a key issue in Hong Kong. A 1,200-member election committee chooses Hong Kong’s leader. The city’s more than 7 million residents don’t get to vote. In September 2014, tens of thousands of protesters shut down parts of the city for months. It was called the “Umbrella Movement.” “Many people come out to join the protest to say that they want a real and direct nomination right.” In the end, the protest movement fizzled out. Lam presented an election proposal, but offered only minor changes. And the Hong Kong Legislature rejected it. In 2017, Lam became the first female chief executive, elected not by a direct vote, but by a committee dominated by supporters in Beijing, a system Lam supported. The opposition criticized her for not prioritizing the territory’s voting rights and its protection of democratic freedoms. In her victory speech, Lam pushed a message of unity. “It is through real work and actual results that I will respond to those who support me and garner the recognition of those yet to support me. Deeds speak louder than words.” As chief executive, though, she’s been a divisive figure. In February 2019, Lam introduced an extradition bill. It would allow criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for prosecution. Hong Kong residents responded by flooding the streets with more protests. “Free Hong Kong!” Crowd: “Free Hong Kong!” “Free Hong Kong!” Critics said this bill would expose Hong Kong’s residents and visitors, including political critics, to being sent to mainland China for trial in Communist Party- controlled courts. After months of protests and a public apology, Lam withdrew the extradition bill. But for protesters, it may not be enough. “It’s too late and too slow now. We are not satisfied with Hong Kong government just withdrawing the bill. The protests will continue until the day we have free elections.” With calls for demonstrations to continue, Lam’s reputation as a fighter will keep being tested.

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Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, has earned a reputation as a tenacious politician in her nearly 40 years in government. But her close ties with China’s central leadership have made her a divisive figure at home.CreditCredit...Jerome Favre/EPA, via Shutterstock

Her decision, which was met with skepticism by some pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong, comes as the protests near their three-month mark and show little sign of abating, roiling a city known for its orderliness and hurting its economy.

It also came as something of a surprise: Just a day before, China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office had signaled an uncompromising stance toward the protests. Yang Guang, a spokesman for the office, said at a briefing in Beijing that there could be “no middle ground, no hesitance and no dithering, when it comes to stopping the violence and controlling riots in Hong Kong.”

A possible hint of a change in Beijing’s stand, however, came from the country’s leader, Xi Jinping. In a speech on Tuesday to the Party School of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, Mr. Xi called on rising party officials to show resolve for a long struggle but suggested that the leadership could adjust its tactics to achieve its aims.

“On matters of principle, not an inch will be yielded,” Mr. Xi said, “but on matters of tactics there can be flexibility.”

[Hong Kong’s leader partly relents. Will the protests continue?]

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University and the author of “China Tomorrow: Democracy or Dictatorship?” suggested on Wednesday evening that Beijing had asked Mrs. Lam to make the decision as a tactical calculation ahead of the Oct. 1 anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

The aim, he said, was “to calm down the movement’s moderates” and “weaken and isolate the radicals.”

“Maybe it is a good calculation on the part of Beijing,” he added, “but it may also fail.”

By early Thursday, the Chinese government had not made any public comment on Mrs. Lam’s announcement, and state-run Chinese media gave her withdrawal of the extradition bill relatively brief, muted coverage. Absent was any of the fiery commentary that has dominated mainland Chinese reporting of Hong Kong’s turmoil, suggesting that Communist Party officials may still be working out a reaction designed to counter accusations of retreat.

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Demonstrators turned out in force on June 16. Organizers said nearly two million people marched.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Mrs. Lam had suspended the bill in June and later said that it was “dead,” but demonstrators have long been suspicious of her government’s refusal to formally withdraw the bill and feared that it could be revived at a later date.

Withdrawal of the bill has remained at the top of the list of protesters’ demands. But the list has grown to include an independent investigation into the police response, amnesty for arrested protesters and direct elections for all lawmakers and the chief executive.

[What’s going on in Hong Kong? What to know about the protests.]

Michael Tien, a moderate pro-Beijing lawmaker, said withdrawal alone might have been enough to calm the protests in mid-June. But since then, “with the accumulation of so much resentment, so many accusations and so many disputes,” the establishment of an independent inquiry “is 100 percent necessary,” Mr. Tien said.

At least some of the hard-line, pro-Beijing camp in Hong Kong expressed skepticism on Wednesday evening about Mrs. Lam’s overture, seeing it not as a clever gambit to ease pressure but rather as a sign of political weakness that would only encourage further protests.

One hard-liner, who insisted on anonymity because of political sensitivities, said that the initial hostility to the overture from democracy advocates showed that the hard-liners’ worries about concessions were being vindicated.

Mrs. Lam described the withdrawal as a step to initiate dialogue. She also said she would add two members to an existing police review board, but that step was far short of calls for an independent investigation.

Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy lawmaker, described Mrs. Lam’s announcement as a “political performance.”

“That it took her three months to formally use the word ‘withdraw’ is truly too little, too late,” Ms. Mo told reporters. “A big mistake has been made.”

This summer has seen peaceful marches involving hundreds of thousands of people, as well as street protests by smaller groups who have become increasingly violent in recent weeks, throwing bricks and firebombs at the police. More than 1,100 people have been arrested since early June. The police, who have used batons, rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters, have faced allegations of excessive force.

Months of protests have started to ripple through the economy, hurting some small businesses and the tourism industry. Many economists believe the city’s economy is now slipping into recession.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up 3.9 percent on Wednesday as the prospect of Mrs. Lam’s news conference began circulating. Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong-based airline that has faced criticism from the Chinese government for its employees’ participation in the protests, climbed more than 7 percent. After the market closed, the company announced the resignation of its chairman.

Withdrawal of the extradition bill was the initial demand of protesters, and the rallying cry when, by organizers’ estimates, more than one million people marched on June 9 and nearly two million marched a week later, more than one in every four people in Hong Kong.

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Saturday saw some of the most intense clashes since the protests began, including the use of firebombs by demonstrators.Credit...Laurel Chor for The New York Times

Withdrawal of the bill “will help to an insignificant extent,” said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Center for China Studies.

The concession “might pacify a small sector of the population but it will not have any impact on whether the waves of protests would subside,” he added.

On LIHKG, an online forum popular with protesters, several posts on Wednesday repeated longstanding calls not to compromise until all demands are met. The Civil Human Right Front, which has organized huge protest marches against the bill, said it would also continue its campaign until the protesters’ calls were satisfied.

Full withdrawal of the extradition bill has long been seen as the easiest compromise that the government could make. But mainland Chinese officials had objected to that possibility, saying that doing so would suggest that the original intentions behind the legislation were mistaken.

Chinese officials had also said that any independent inquiry into the police’s conduct and other aspects of the unrest could not be started until the protests died down.

Over weeks of protests, state news outlets and other commentators on the mainland unleashed scathing criticism of the protesters, portraying them as rioters and, in some cases, suggesting they were traitors or terrorists. One analyst said Beijing may have been motivated to allow a concession in order to begin reining in the nationalistic rhetoric to some degree.

“Beijing loves the nationalistic sentiment, but only to the point that it’s controllable,” said Samson Yuen, an assistant professor of political science at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. “At some point Beijing wants to rein that in for fear that these nationalistic sentiments will point toward the government.”

As the protests dragged on, pro-Beijing lawmakers had expressed concern that the anger at the government would hurt their camp in district council elections in November and legislative elections next year.

Saturday, the fifth anniversary of a decision by China’s legislature to put limits on direct elections in Hong Kong, saw some of the most intense clashes since the protests began. After a march by tens of thousands, some protesters gathered around the main government offices, hurling rocks and firebombs. Riot police officers fired tear gas and pumped blue-dyed water from trucks at protesters.

Protesters built barricades and set fires, and the police later pursued them across several neighborhoods, arresting dozens. In a subway station in the Prince Edward neighborhood, officers from the police’s Special Tactical Squad entered a stopped train, using batons to hit people who were crouching on the floor and dousing them with pepper spray.

The Chinese government was initially silent on this summer’s protests, then began to condemn them in increasingly strident tones, warning that the military could be called in. Images of Chinese police officers and paramilitary troops conducting anti-riot drills in Shenzhen, a mainland city near Hong Kong, were given regular coverage by state media outlets.

On Friday, the police in Hong Kong arrested several prominent activists and three pro-democracy lawmakers as a crackdown on the opposition intensified.

Reporting was contributed by Ezra Cheung and Amy Qin from Hong Kong, and Keith Bradsher, Steven Lee Myers and Chris Buckley from Beijing.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Bill That Riled Hong Kongers Will Be Pulled. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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