City BeatBeijing’s low-key handling of extradition bill withdrawal is a hard reality check for Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam

Mainland authorities and state media noticeably downplayed the city leader’s U-turn on the controversial legislation

Unwilling to be dragged into the mess, officials there may just let her carry on trying to quell the unrest

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A television shows the broadcast in which Carrie Lam announced she would withdraw the extradition legislation, news which mainland media downplayed. Photo: Robert Ng

Published: 4:38pm, 8 Sep 2019Updated: 10:45pm, 8 Sep 2019

In a city heavily plagued by anti-government protest chaos and intensifying political division, a rare public consensus was the cynical conclusion that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s stunning U-turn in officially withdrawing her already “dead” extradition bill was “too little, too late”.

Equally cynical was the reaction across the border, where mainland China’s many vocal netizens felt it was the opposite – “too much, too early” – while state media and authorities concerned noticeably downplayed the announcement.

There was plenty of wild speculation. Was this a concession from the Hong Kong government or Beijing? Or was it a strategic adjustment paving the way for tougher action if the chaos continued?

The timing was intriguing enough, coming just a day after a leaked audio recording in which a sombre-sounding Lam was heard telling a group of business elites that she had “very, very limited” room for manoeuvre, as the situation had escalated into a national sovereignty issue.

She was also heard touching on her personal choice to resign, if she had one, but insisted the next day that she had never offered to quit.