Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) yesterday said that her government would formally withdraw an extradition bill that has ignited months of protests.
In a five-minute televised address, Lam said that her government would withdraw the bill to “fully allay public concerns.”
“Our citizens, police and reporters have been injured during violent incidents,” Lam said. “There have been chaotic scenes at the airport and [mass transit railway] stations; roads and tunnels have been suddenly blocked.”
Photo: AP
“Visitors wonder whether our city is still a safe place for travel or business. Families and friends have been under stress and arguments have flared. For many people, Hong Kong has become an unfamiliar place,” she added.
Lam shelved the bill in June and in July said that it was “dead,” but has until now refused to withdraw it entirely, a key demand of the protesters who said it could be revived.
By formally withdrawing the bill, Lam conceded to one of five key demands of the demonstrators, but did not concede to the others, which include an independent inquiry into police behavior, amnesty to those arrested and democratic reforms to give Hong Kong residents universal suffrage.
Lam said that she did not believe the government should establish an inquiry to look into police behavior, deferring to the Independent Police Complaints Council, to which she said she would add two new members.
Instead, Lam said that her government would open a platform for dialogue, inviting community leaders, experts and others to investigate social issues and advise the government.
“After more than two months of social unrest, it is obvious to many that discontentment extends far beyond the bill,” she said.
As news of the bill’s withdrawal spread, riot police were seen patrolling metro stations as some protesters called for people to gather at various stations.
“Of course I won’t accept it. We have five demands. We want all of them, not one less. The most important issue to be solved is the police abuse of power,” a protester named Alan said.
A survey released yesterday of private business activity showed the “steepest deterioration in the health of the private sector since February 2009.”
Ahead of Lam’s speech, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 4 percent.
University and secondary students this week launched a class boycott and protesters have planned further action in the weeks ahead, including another attempt to paralyze the airport and a rally outside the US consulate to call on lawmakers to pass legislation that would sanction officials deemed as suppressing freedom or human rights in Hong Kong.
Protesters remained suspicious of Lam’s concession.
“She’s just doing this to try and disintegrate the movement. A lot of people think that,” a protester named Katya said. “The situation has escalated to a point where not even Beijing knows how to sort this, so they’re using different tricks and lies. Hong Kong people have learned to ignore her.”
Additional reporting by AP
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
DEFENSE: The US would assist Taiwan in developing a new command and control system, and it would be based on the US-made Link-22, a senior official said The Ministry of National Defense is to propose a special budget to replace the military’s currently fielded command and control system, bolster defensive resilience and acquire more attack drones, a senior defense official said yesterday. The budget would be presented to the legislature in August, the source said on condition of anonymity. Taiwan’s decade-old Syun An (迅安, “Swift Security”) command and control system is a derivative of Lockheed Martin’s Link-16 developed under Washington’s auspices, they said. The Syun An system is difficult to operate, increasingly obsolete and has unresolved problems related to integrating disparate tactical data across the three branches of the military,
RSS