Lam will meet with pro-Beijing lawmakers, Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at government house at 4pm according to RTHK, Now TV, Apple Daily and HK01.
Pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip told HKFP that the bill’s withdrawal is “likely,” though she has not been told what the meeting will be about.
According to a so-called „exclusive“ Reuters report released Friday, Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), submitted a proposal to Beijing earlier this summer that asked for „5 key demands“ from the Hong Kong protesters to be taken seriously but was rejected.
The Global Times has since learned the Reuters story is fake. In fact, it intends to create an illusion by interweaving rumors with public events in an attempt to misguide public opinion.
Yes, the movement has evolved. The protesters and their wide base of supporters no longer simply want to see the complete withdrawal of the extradition bill and the establishment of an independent inquiry, and so on.
They want a real share of political power, the removal of the kind of governance that has plagued Hong Kong since the 1997 Handover to China — one where the government and their pro-establishment cronies ram through unwanted policies by manipulating an undemocratic political system that does not represent the wishes and the choices of the people.
Why would Ms. Lam put forward a bill that failed to adhere to international best practice on human rights? And why would she stick to her guns when key authorities – including both the Hong Kong Bar Association and the Hong Kong Law Society – pointed out key flaws in the government’s proposals? Impossible to know for sure, but it seems likely that her reading of what Beijing wanted from the final bill may have influenced her thinking. After all, her political future is in Beijing’s hands: the pro-Beijing Election Committee will decide on her second term, not the people of Hong Kong.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam has personally apologised for the extradition law debacle but the postponed controversial bill will not be scrapped, despite a protest on Sunday attended by “two million” people. Lam, clad in all-white, said she has reflected deeply over the past few months.
The Front’s convener Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit said there are five demands for today‘s protest, that is for the government to retract the bill instead of suspending it, and for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to step down.
Protesters also demanded immediate release of those who have been arrested and charges against protesters to be dropped. The government should retract remarks saying the Wednesday protest was a “riot” and to hold those who ordered to fire bullets at protesters accountable.
Hongkongers marched in their thousands on Sunday to call for the withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill, despite its suspension by the government the day before. Chanting for Chief Executive Carrie Lam to step down, they marched through Wanchai and Causeway Bay en route to government headquarters in Admiralty.