Major Concession That's Too Late

Carrie Lam gave a wooden performance and sported a new hairdo today

After lunch we were shocked to find out Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was going to say the W-word -- withdraw the extradition bill.

The shock announcement was followed by disappointment

Was this really true? It was confirmed by a government source and she made a prerecorded message that was broadcast just before 6pm.

However, in the video her hairstyle was very different from the day before, and she acted and sounded like a robot, going through the motions.

There was no apology or sincerity, just an attempt to reason with protesters that violence was not the answer.

Lam said she will formally withdraw the bill when the Legislative Council resumes in October, and that the government-endorsed Independent Police Complaints Council will include two more members in it to make it more objective.

Protesters say Lam's concessions are not enough

She and her senior officials will start dialogues with the different communities and hear what people have to say, acknowledging there are serious political, economic and social deep-rooted problems.

While withdrawing the bill is a huge concession on her part -- and getting Beijing to agree to it is massive -- for most protesters, this is too little too late.

Many on social media have said this is like going to a restaurant and ordering four dishes and a soup, and only the soup arrives -- cold.

The hard core protesters continue to press for all five demands, whereas moderates are pushing for withdrawing the bill and an independent inquiry into police brutality.

Hang Seng Index did rise over 800 points, how about more?

Will this divide protesters? Not really because the latter aren't happy with Lam's current proposal of continuing to use the IPPC to investigate the police. The protests will continue, but will they continue to be violent? That will be revealed this weekend.

So it's a start, but a start to a long journey ahead that should have been taken almost three months ago. Better late than never, but at what cost?

Carrie Refutes Resignation

Today Carrie Lam denies that she even wanted to resign

This morning in her weekly briefing with the media, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor categorically denied she or her staff had leaked the recording of her to Reuters. She was angry her remarks were recorded in a closed-door session when she thought Chatham House rules apply.

Who can resist not recording her speech when she says if given the choice she would resign?

However this morning she was defiant and said, "I have never tendered a resignation to the central people's government. I have not even contemplated to discuss a resignation with the central people's government," she said. "The choice of not resigning is my own choice."

Police brutality gets more violent as each week passes

While resigning would be an easier way out, Lam says she didn't choose that option, or rather she didn't give herself that option.

"But I told myself repeatedly in the last three months that I and my team should stay on to help Hong Kong in a very difficult situation, and to serve the people of Hong Kong," she said. "I have not given myself the choice to take an easier path and that is to leave. I'd rather stay on and walk this path together with my team and with the people of Hong Kong."

But Carrie, what makes you think people want you to walk on the same path as them?

As you said so yourself, you have created this "unforgivable havoc" on the city and yet you have done nothing to try and fix it. Instead whenever you speak, you further infuriate people to come out to protest.

Meanwhile you hide behind the police who are doing the dirty work for you, beating people up, arresting them for no specific charges and you quietly condone the police's violent actions towards protesters, from those as young as 12 years old to seniors.

The police are eroding rule of law in Hong Kong

So far to date, over 1,000 people have been arrested. The more people who are convicted and thrown into jail, the more they will become radicalized while serving prison sentences of up to 10 years for rioting.

Is this the mess the Hong Kong and Chinese governments want to deal with five to 10 years from now? 

Leaks on Carrie Lam's Frustrations

A recording reveals Lam's inability to resolve the crisis in Hong Kong

Another explosive report by Reuters reveals a taped recording of one of Chief Executive Carrie Lam's recent meetings with business people where she admits she is between a rock and a hard place.

In a speech in English, Lam says she made a serious mistake in putting forward the extradition bill, but now the crisis has become a national security and sovereignty issue, and so it is beyond her ability to control the situation.

She says, "... the room, the political room for the chief executive who, unfortunately, has to serve two masters by constitution, that is the central people's government and the people of Hong Kong, that political room for maneuvering is very, very, very limited". 

She claims the PLA will not come into Hong Kong

Wait a second -- when has she served the people of Hong Kong? She can also show some integrity and quit even if Beijing does not accept her resignation, but no she is still very much at Government House.

Interestingly she lets the business sector know in a closed-door meeting that while the National Day celebrations are less than a month away, there is "absolutely no plan" to deploy the People's Liberation Army on Hong Kong streets, as Beijing knows this is bad optics.

While we might be able to breathe a sigh of relief on this one -- might is the operative word -- Lam says Beijing is willing to play the long game in quelling the protests, even if it meant a drop in tourism, loses in capital outflows and IPO cancellations.

In other words this probably means even more arrests and prosecutions, not to mention more violent altercations with the police.

She also told her audience of her frustration at not being able "to reduce the pressure on my frontline police officers" or to provide a political solution to "pacify the large number of peaceful protesters who are so angry with the government, with me in particular".

Thousands of students protest at Chinese University campus

Her inability "to offer a political situation in order to relieve the tension," she said, was the source of her "biggest sadness".
 "For a chief executive to have caused this huge havoc is unforgivable," Lam said.

In her speech she added how this crisis has impacted her personally. "Nowadays it is extremely difficult for me to go out. I have not been on the streets, not in the shopping malls, can't go to a hair salon. I can't do anything because my whereabouts will be spread around social media."

If she were to appear in public, she said, "you could expect a big crowd of black T-shirts and black-masked young people waiting for me."

Has she even tried? The claim that she can't go to a salon these days doesn't have any sympathy from anyone.

And as if it wasn't obvious by now, Lam is now the least popular of all the chief executives since 1997. Veteran pollster Robert Chung of the Public Opinion Research Institute says her success in pushing through several controversial proposals bolstered her belief in believing she could ram through the extradition bill.

"All these things made her feel so confident, and when we had the first demonstration, she still thought, 'Don't worry, I'll get through in two days and things will be over,'" Chung said. "But she was totally wrong."

Dr Sun Yat-sen prepared for battle!

Lam again reiterated to her audience of business people that the extradition bill was of her doing, and that it was not instructed or coerced by the central government.

She admits it would be naive to paint a rosy picture for the near future, and said the government originally projected arresting 1,000 to 2,000 people.

"Hong Kong is not dead yet. Maybe she is very, very sick, but she is not dead yet," she said.

And who's fault is that?

She will have more to answer to tomorrow in her regular weekly news conference.

Earlier today several university campuses and secondary schools held protests on the first day of school.

It was very thoughtful of the students to prepare the father of the revolution, Dr Sun Yat-sen with a helmet, gas mask and gloves...

Police Brutality Knows No Bounds

A couple begging the police not to hit them anymore in the MTR carriage

This weekend has been too depressing news-wise. I cannot erase the horrific images in my mind of the young couple in the MTR carriage at Prince Edward who were mercilessly beaten by riot police. The couple was cowering in fear and afterwards were clutching each other so hard, in shock at what had just happened to them.

Will the police ever apologize for how they have terrorized them?

Riot police indiscriminately attacked people in MTR stations

And the rest of us for that matter? For that it has made a number of Hongkongers hate the police even more.

How can they just randomly beat people with batons on a wild rampage?

Just as shocking was the police not allowing first aiders to help those who were injured in the various stations. There's a heartbreaking video of a young first aider who is begging the police to allow him in, even saying they can beat him up, that he only wants to treat people.

When his pleas fall on deaf ears he sinks down on the ground and wails. There isn't much anyone can do to comfort him. In another station, three first aiders were forced to stand with their face to the wall and not help anyone. It's shocking and outrageous.

Moments before the police attacked the young couple

As far as I know there are no rallies planned this week, but perhaps someone will organize one to condemn such insane police brutality. July 21 we saw white-shirted men attacking people in Yuen Long MTR station and not a police officer in sight. And now on August 31 scores of riot police on a mission to hit anyone in their way, even slamming a young woman into the wall at Kowloon Bay MTR station.

It seems the MTR is now the new battleground ever since the public transportation network was criticized by Chinese state media for aiding and abetting protesters. This is hardly true. They are providing transportation for everyone.

But now that so much violence has happened in the MTR, will people be terrified to take it?

Tonight after the MTR shut down the line at Tung Chung (because protesters had vandalized it), they were were forced to walk from the airport to Tsing Yi, a four-hour walk, that some journalists had to do as well as they followed them.

Thousands make the long march from the airport to Tsing Yi

Along the way some people with cars handed out food and water to the protesters and some offered rides. At Tsing Yi scores of people with cars came out and gave some of them rides to where they needed to go.

There is one month to go before Xi Jinping's big 70th anniversary bash for the People's Republic of China, but protesters are far from ready to give up their fight...