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Calls for an apology and a resignation: what can Carrie Lam do to soothe an angry Hong Kong public?
- Insiders and observers admit the room for manoeuvre for chief executive and her own standing with the people remains limited
- Loss of trust created by her handling of the bill will take a long time to redress, they say
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Why you can trust SCMP
Senior officials and advisers to Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor were busy in emergency meetings throughout Monday to map out ways Hong Kong’s embattled leader could extricate herself from the biggest political crisis facing the city over her mishandling of the controversial extradition bill.
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But the word from those willing to speak off the record was that the camp was still reeling from the shock of witnessing the city’s biggest protest march when an estimated 2 million people took to the streets to call for her to resign and withdraw the bill, instead of just suspending it.
Marchers also urged the government to retract its categorisation of clashes between protesters and police officers outside the Legislative Council building on Wednesday as a riot. By day’s end, Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung removed the label of riot and said only those who threw bricks and wielded metal poles could face riot charges.
While that removed some of the rancour of the past week, insiders and observers admitted the room for manoeuvre for Lam and her own standing with the people remained limited.
The loss of trust created by Lam’s handling of the bill, which would allow the transfer of fugitives to mainland China and other jurisdictions with which Hong Kong lacks an extradition arrangement, would take a long time to redress, they said.
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