BREAKING: Carrie Lam offers ‘sincere apology,’ but refuses to budge on Hongkongers’ demands

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks to the press this afternoon. Screengrab via Facebook.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks to the press this afternoon. Screengrab via Facebook.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam today publicly apologized for her handling of a controversial extradition bill, saying in a brief statement to reporters that she “should do a better job.”

However, it remained to be seen whether the short, pro forma statement of contrition will satisfy the more than one million Hongkongers who streamed through the city on Sunday demanding she fully withdraw the bill and resign over the debacle, which has spurred the largest demonstrations in the city’s history over the last two weeks.

“I personally have to take a large part of the responsibility,” Lam told reporters. “This [bill] has caused controversies, anxiety and confrontation in the society.”

“I would like to tender my sincere apology to the citizens of Hong Kong,” she added.

“This incident has led me to realize that I need to do more,” Lam continued. “I have never spared any effort to serve the public, but this incident has made me realize, as chief executive, I still have much to learn and do in balancing diverse interests.”

After weeks of intransigence by her administration on the issue, however, Hongkoners appeared unconvinced, and early reactions to the speech were overwhelmingly negative.

According to a reporter at the scene, a contingent of protesters watching the speech outside the Legislative Council burst into incredulous boos at the conclusion of Lam’s prepared remarks.

“What is even the point of this when you are not even acknowledging what you did wrong. Stop wasting our time,” one commenter said on a livestream of the speech.

“You have failed Hong Kong and Hong Kong citizens. Even now during this press briefing,” said another, calling on Lam to “step down.”

Many took issue with Lam’s contention that she had listened to opponents’ points of view, when she appeared in fact to have completely ignored them by refusing to completely withdraw the bill, which would allow renditions to mainland China. On Saturday, Lam had finally said she would suspend the bill indefinitely following weeks of sustained criticism from seemingly every corner of society, and days after police were slammed for using strong-arm tactics to break up a demonstration against the bill in Admiralty.

However, even after the suspension, protesters returned to the streets on Sunday in even greater numbers to call for the bill to be scrapped altogether.

In a question and answer session, Lam again stressed there was no timeframe for restarting work on the bill, appearing to suggest that it would effectively die on the vine when the current LegCo term ends, while avoiding saying so directly.

As for whether she would resign — another of the protesters’ chief demands — Lam said she would remain in her position, but acknowledged that her “work in the next three years will be very difficult.”



Reader Interactions

Leave A Reply


BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on