Hong Kong police clashed with protesters on Saturday as Carrie Lam was sworn in as the city's new leader on the 20th anniversary of its handover from British to Chinese rule.

Lam became the semi-autonomous Chinese region's chief executive in a ceremony presided over by Chinese President Xi Jinping. </s> HONG KONG — The Chinese government Monday voiced strong support for Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, Carrie Lam, a day after yet another vast street protest against her government rattled the leadership in Beijing and the local political establishment.

The Foreign Ministry issued a forceful endorsement of Lam on Monday. Beijing’s representatives in Hong Kong called in dozens of local politicians and business leaders to urge them to support her. And the Chinese state media began praising Lam even as government censors assiduously tried to block word of the Hong Kong protests from reaching the public in mainland China.

But after three huge demonstrations over eight days, and her retreat on a proposal that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be prosecuted in China’s opaque judicial system, it was unclear how long Lam would continue to govern.

The latest protest, on Sunday, was the largest yet, with a crowd that organizers estimated at almost 2 million in a city of 7 million people. While Lam had indefinitely suspended her push for the Beijing-backed extradition bill the day before, protesters still filled the streets, calling for her to withdraw the legislation instead of suspending it and demanding that she resign.

Lam, a lifelong veteran of Hong Kong’s fractious politics who was appointed chief executive two years ago, has refused to bow to the protesters’ jeering calls for her to quit. But democracy advocates in Hong Kong vowed to press on.

“Carrie Lam must step down,” said Joshua Wong, a student leader who, coincidentally, was released from prison Monday after serving a two-month sentence for refusing to leave a protest site in 2014 during a democracy push known as the Umbrella Movement.

“More and more Hong Kong people — not only 1 million, 2 million people — will come to join our fight until we get back our basic human rights and freedom,” he said.

In addition to calling for Lam to step down and fully withdraw the bill, the protesters — emboldened and angered after her partial concession Saturday — have called for an impartial investigation into the police use of force against demonstrators and for a rescinding of the official description of clashes with police Wednesday as an illegal riot.

Any resignation by Lam would prompt strong demands by democracy activists for her successor to be chosen in free and open elections. But the Communist Party leadership in Beijing, loath to allow any steps that might jeopardize one-party control on the mainland, is unlikely to let them be held.

Keith Bradsher and Amy Qin and New York Times writers. </s> Hundreds of Hong Kong people gathered outside the city’s legislature on Monday to call for the resignation of chief executive Carrie Lam, as one of her top advisers declared there was “no chance” a controversial extradition bill that sparked huge protests in the city would be reintroduced.

The protest on Monday followed a mass demonstration on Sunday against the bill that prompted Ms Lam to apologise over her handling of the proposed law, which would for the first time allow criminal suspects to be extradited from Hong Kong to China.

Organisers of Sunday’s rally claimed two million joined the march, while police estimated the number of demonstrators at 338,000, in what was one of the biggest protests in the city since its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

“Almost a third of Hong Kong’s population came out against the extradition bill and the chief executive has not given a proper response,” said a woman at the city’s legislature who identified herself only as Christy. She said she had been out all night protesting. “Pausing the legislation is not what we want, we want the chief executive to cancel the proposal.”

Ms Lam announced on Saturday that she would suspend the bill indefinitely after insisting for months that she would push it through. Her U-turn came after a week of protests that erupted into violence last Wednesday when police used tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators in a rare use of force in the city.

But while Monday’s protests were small compared with previous days, democracy groups have vowed to continue pushing for a full withdrawal of the bill that they say could be abused by China to seize anyone passing through the territory on potentially trumped-up charges. They also want Ms Lam’s resignation and for police to soften any charges brought against the 11 protesters arrested on Wednesday.

Bernard Chan, Ms Lam’s most senior adviser, told Bloomberg there was “no chance the bill will be reintroduced”.

He added that the chief executive needed to “look after Hong Kong interests as well as the [China’s] interests. You can’t look at one and not the other”.

Mr Chan’s comments came after he said last week that it was “impossible” to continue pursuing the controversial bill against a backdrop of violent clashes between protesters and police, in what was the first public sign of a split among the city’s leadership over the issue.

The protests outside the Legislative Council came as Joshua Wong, a leader of the 2014 pro-democracy Occupy protests – the last time mass demonstrations brought the city to a standstill – was released a month early from jail. At a press conference held outside the prison in which he was incarcerated, he joined calls for Ms Lam to resign and later tweeted that the bill should be withdrawn.

“I hope people are aware there’s a new fight after the Umbrella Movement, ” he said.

Mr Wong has been in jail since May, after he lost an appeal against a contempt of court sentence for defying an order to clear a protest site during the pro-democracy rallies. His original three-month sentence was reduced to two months on appeal, citing his young age at the time – he turned 18 during the protests.

Mr Wong said there were about 20 activists still in prison in cases linked to pro-democracy protests, and he hoped there would be no more political prisoners in the territory. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019 </s> HONG KONG (AP) — The Latest on protests in Hong Kong against extradition bill (all times local):

Hong Kong's chief executive has met with her Executive Council as pressure mounts for her to delay or withdraw an unpopular extradition bill.

Carrie Lam, who was appointed by Beijing, is expected to speak with media later Saturday. TV networks showed members of the Executive Council, or cabinet, headed by car into a government compound.

Some Executive Council members have urged Lam to suspend debate on the bill, which would allow Hong Kong suspects to be tried in mainland China.

Another mass protest is expected Sunday after clashes turned violent on Wednesday, leaving about 80 people injured including 22 police officers.

Pressure on Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam has been mounting, with signs emerging that she may delay an unpopular extradition bill that has drawn hundreds of thousands of people into the streets in protest.

Reports say Lam is expected to make an announcement Saturday after talks that continued late into Friday night. Another mass protest is expected Sunday.

The pressure on Lam to withdraw the bill is intense, with many protesters demanding she quit. The Beijing-appointed leader of the former British colony is caught between a public anxious to protect civil liberties and legal protections guaranteed when control of the territory was handed to China in 1997, and her Communist Party bosses.

Protests died down late in the week after clashes with police that turned violent on Wednesday. </s> HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong is bracing for another massive protest over an unpopular extradition bill, a week after the crisis brought as many as 1 million into the streets.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Saturday said she was suspending work on the bill that would allow some suspects to be sent for trial in mainland Chinese courts.

But pro-democracy activists say that's not enough. They want the proposal withdrawn and are calling for Lam to step down.

Mourners meanwhile laid flowers Sunday on the pavement near where a man fell to his death a day earlier after hanging a protest banner on scaffolding on a shopping mall.

Emergency workers tried to cushion the man's fall but failed to catch him. </s> Masked protesters smashed their way into the legislative council building on the 22nd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China RITCHIE B. TONGO/EPA

Protesters in Hong Kong rampaged through the territory’s parliament this afternoon in chaotic scenes following the latest tense demonstrations against the government and its pro-Chinese chief executive, Carrie Lam.

Having smashed the glass entrance to storm Hong Kong’s Legislative Council building, protesters wearing masks, helmets and goggles removed aluminium fences and, once inside, sprayed red paint over walls, floors and security cameras.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets and at about 9pm smoke was seen coming out of the building, although its origin was unclear.

The new demonstrations took place on the 22nd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China. They followed weeks of unrest over a controversial proposed law to allow the extradition of criminal suspects from… </s> HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam steadily climbed her way up bureaucratic ranks to capture the top position in the former British colony, relying on sheer intelligence, ambition, canny networking and an astute deference to authority.

Yet the ground has shifted considerably since she began her civil service career in the 1980s. On Saturday, she appeared to be fighting for her political life as she sought to explain her decision to push through unpopular legislation that would make it easier to extradite suspects to communist-ruled mainland China, which took control of the territory in a 1997 handover.

A key reason for Lam's vulnerability is that she was not directly elected by the territory's people, but rather ushered into office in 2017 by the vote of a 1,194-member committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites, despite being far less popular than her main rival.

She now finds herself caught between a public that never truly backed her, and leaders in Beijing who want her to push through unpopular measures seen to be eroding Western-style economic, social and cultural freedoms that Beijing promised to respect for at least 50 years after it took back control from Britain.

Lam, 62, has a reputation as an efficient and pragmatic administrator. But she was unpopular with Hong Kongers even before she took office because she was seen as a proxy for Beijing who was out of touch with ordinary people.

She said Saturday that she was shelving the extradition bill to avoid further social turmoil following a protest march that drew hundreds of thousands of people on June 9 and violent clashes on Wednesday where police used tear gas, rubber bullets and other tactics, angering the public further.

Lam's insistence that she had the full backing of China's central government in taking her decision likely rang as tone-deaf given skepticism over the communist leadership's motives, especially after a deadly crackdown on student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square three decades ago.

"They understand, they have confidence in my judgment and they support me," Lam told reporters, while also saying the legislation was still needed.

Hours later, Bonny Leung, a leader with a pro-democracy alliance, accused Lam of "ignorance and arrogance." She and other activists urged Hong Kong citizens to turn out en-masse for a march Sunday to demand the full withdrawal of the extradition bill, an apology for the aggressive police tactics and Lam's resignation as chief executive.

Few anticipated that Lam would become embroiled in such friction when she took over from her predecessor Leung Chun-ying, a highly polarizing former policeman who stepped down as chief executive in 2017, citing family reasons.

Lam may eventually, after a face-saving interval, also end up stepping aside, analysts said. That would allow time for Beijing to decide upon a successor that the leadership considers both competent and politically reliable.

"They may not fire her immediately, but her chances for a second term are totally gone now and they may find a reason to let her go without losing much face because now she is hated by everybody in Hong Kong and her administration has become quite ungovernable," said Willy Lam, a veteran political observer.

Carrie Lam is Hong Kong's first female leader and its fourth since Britain ended its colonial rule in 1997. While the Chinese government in Beijing has condemned foreign criticism of the protests over the extradition bill as meddling in the country's internal affairs, they've largely remained aloof from the controversy in Hong Kong, preferring to let Lam take the heat or even make her a scapegoat, according to some analysts.

China's ambassador to Britain told the BBC the push to fast-track the extradition bill was entirely Lam's idea.

Unlike many in the top ranks of Hong Kong's leadership, Lam comes from a humble background. She grew up in the downtown Wanchai district, the fourth of five children. She attended a Catholic girls school, the University of Hong Kong and later Cambridge University.

She is married to a mathematician and has two sons. They are British citizens, but Lam is not.

Much of the unhappiness with Lam and her administration predates her appointment as chief executive. Protests in 2014 over rules Beijing imposed for choosing members of the election committee that helps select the chief executive paralyzed parts of the city for weeks.

The protests, dubbed the Umbrella Movement, highlighted Hong Kong aspirations for greater, rather than less democracy.

On taking office, Lam pledged to focus on issues such as housing, education and health care. In pushing for the extradition bill, she ignited public frustrations over increasing control by Beijing.

In speaking to reporters on Saturday, Lam insisted she only wants what's good for Hong Kong.

"We have not done a good enough job to convince the people of Hong Kong," she said. </s> HONG KONG -- Protesters in Hong Kong left the streets, averting possible clashes Monday after haggling for hours with police by moving to areas near the city's government headquarters.

The demonstrators who stayed after a massive protest march the day before, demanding that Chief Executive Carrie Lam abandon a proposed extradition bill, were seen streaming Monday morning into a space outside Hong Kong's Legislative Council after police who had cleared it reopened the area. Their decision to move allowed police to reopen streets to traffic.

The activists have rejected an apology from Lam for her handling of the legislation, which has stoked fears of expanding control from Beijing in this former British colony.

"We are very angry that Carrie Lam has not responded to the demands of all the protesters, but now is the time to talk about strategy, and talk about strategy is to how about how to make the whole struggle into a long-term struggle and not a day struggle, so if Carrie Lam does not respond to the five demands by the protesters, people will come back and the struggle will continue," said Lee Cheuk-yan, a former legislator and activist.

Shortly after daybreak, the police had asked for co-operation in clearing the road but said the protesters could stay on the sidewalks.

For a time, the protesters, many in masks and other gear to guard against possible use of tear gas, responded with chants, some kneeling in front of the officers.

Hundreds were lying or sitting on the roads until they agreed to move to the plaza outside the government building and a spacious nearby park.

Activists had called on Hong Kong residents to boycott classes and work, though it was unclear how many might heed that call.

Nearly 2 million of the city's 7 million people turned out on Sunday, according to estimates by protest organizers. Police said 338,000 were counted on the designated protest route in the "peak period" of the march. A week earlier as many as 1 million people demonstrated to voice their concern over Hong Kong's relations with mainland China in one of the toughest tests of the territory's special status since Beijing took control in a 1997 handover.

The scenes were similar to those seen nearly five years earlier, when protesters camped for weeks in the streets to protest rules that prevented the direct election of the city's chief executive, the top local official.

One of the activists arrested after those demonstrations, Joshua Wong, was released from prison Monday after serving half of a two-month jail sentence for contempt. He headed to join protesters gathered near Hong Kong's government headquarters soon afterward, and also called in a tweet for Lam to resign and for a halt to "all political persecutions."

After daybreak Monday, police announced that they want to clear the streets. Soon after, police lined up several officers deep and faced off against several hundred demonstrators on a street in central Hong Kong.

The night before, as protesters reached the march's end thousands gathered outside the city government headquarters and the office of Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who on Saturday suspended her effort to force passage of the bill.

Hong Kong residents worry that allowing some suspects to be sent for trial in mainland China would be another of many steps chipping away at Hong Kong's freedoms and legal autonomy. One concern is that the law might be used to send criminal suspects to China to potentially face vague political charges, possible torture and unfair trials.

The protesters are demanding that Lam scrap the proposal for good and that she step down.

Protesters are also angered over the forceful tactics by police use of tear gas, rubber bullets and other forceful measures as demonstrators broke through barricades outside the city government's headquarters to quell unrest during demonstrations on Wednesday, and over Lam's decision to call the clashes a riot. That worsens the potential legal consequences for those involved.

In a statement issued late Sunday, Lam noted the demonstrations and said the government "understands that these views have been made out of love and care for Hong Kong."

"The chief executive apologizes to the people of Hong Kong for this and pledges to adopt a most sincere and humble attitude to accept criticisms and make improvements in serving the public," it said.

Not enough, said the pro-democracy activists.

"This is a total insult to and fooling the people who took to the street!" the Civil Human Rights Front said in a statement.

Protesters have mainly focused their anger on Lam, who had little choice but to carry through dictates issued by Beijing, where President Xi Jinping has enforced increasingly authoritarian rule. But some were skeptical that having Lam step down would help.

"It doesn't really matter because the next one would be just as evil," said Kayley Fung, 27.

Many here believe Hong Kong's legal autonomy has been significantly diminished despite Beijing's insistence that it is still honouring its promise, dubbed "one country, two systems," that the territory can retain its own social, legal and political system for 50 years after the handover in 1997.

After Lam announced she was suspending the legislation to avoid more violence and allow additional debate, Chinese government officials issued multiple statements backing that decision. Lam, however, made clear she was not withdrawing it.

She has sidestepped questions over whether she should quit and also defended how the police dealt with last week's clashes with demonstrators.

Lam insists the extradition legislation is needed if Hong Kong is to uphold justice, meet its international obligations and not become a magnet for fugitives. The proposed bill would expand the scope of criminal suspect transfers to include Taiwan, Macau and mainland China.

So far, China has been excluded from Hong Kong's extradition agreements because of concerns over its judicial independence and human rights record.

Prosecutions of activists, detentions without trial of five Hong Kong book publishers and the illegal seizure in Hong Kong by mainland agents of at least one mainland businessman are among moves in recent years that have unnerved many in the city of 7 million. </s> Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong have accused the police of standing by as men dressed in white attacked commuters and protesters, leaving 45 people hospitalised, including one who is critically injured.

Video footage showed dozens of men, mostly in masks, storming a mass transit station in Yuen Long late on Sunday, chasing passengers and beating them with sticks. Among those hurt in the attack were demonstrators returning from a large anti-government rally, as well as a pregnant woman and a woman holding a child, according to witnesses.

The footage, which emerged after an anti-government march by hundreds of thousands of people, caused widespread anger and condemnation as protesters and critics accused pro-Beijing officials of hiring thugs to intimidate protesters – a charge that Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam vehemently denied in a briefing Monday afternoon.

“Is Hong Kong now allowing triads to do what they want, beating up people on the street with weapons?” the Democratic party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, who was among the injured, asked reporters.

A former legislator previously with a pro-Beijing party that usually supports Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, also criticised her over the attack. James Tien on Facebook called on Lam to resign, writing: “Chief executive Lam, are you still a chief executive? Or are triads ruling Hong Kong now?”

The pro-democracy lawmaker Ray Chan tweeted: “Hong Kong has one of the world’s highest cop to population ratio. Where were @hkpoliceforce?” Another lawmaker Gary Fan said: “Hong Kong is no longer a safe city”.

Flanked by Hong Kong’s police commissioner, security chief and government ministers on Monday, Lam attempted to deflect blame by condemning both sides. “Violence will only breed more violence and at the end of the day the whole of Hong Kong and the people will suffer,” she said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Journalist Ryan Lau Chun Kong tends to his wounds after he was attacked at Yuen Long station. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Details of the attack shocked residents. A woman sobbed while recounting what happened during the Yuen Long attack, telling one witness in audio circulated online: “They beat people in the carriage indiscriminately whoever they were, even people who were returning home from work … Some men were shielding us. They didn’t fight back otherwise we would have been beaten even worse. They beat even women and children.”

Video filmed inside the train showed passengers screaming and crying as they attempted to shield themselves with umbrellas. The attackers used metal and wooden rods, as well as canes and brooms.

Footage showed a young man dressed in black being punched and kneed in the stomach by several men. A female journalist was beaten while filming the attack. Photos showed commuters bleeding and smears of blood on the station ground.

When police arrived at the station after 11pm, the assailants had left and angry protesters demanded to know why they had taken so long to get there. Police left and the attackers later came back a second time, breaking into a closed gate of the train station.

Hong Kong’s hospital authority said 45 people between the ages of 18 and 64 were injured in the attack, including one man who was in a critical condition and three in a serious condition. Late on Monday, police said they had arrested five people – some of them allegedly Triads – in relation to the attacks on charges of “unlawful assembly”.

Ray Chan (@ray_slowbeat) Snippet of a live broadcast from lawmaker Lam Cheuk ting, showing self-professed pro-Gov't mobsters attacking passengers in train cars at #MTR #YuenLong Stn. #HongKong has 1 of the world's highest cop to population ratio. Where were @hkpoliceforce? Lam was injured as shown live. pic.twitter.com/Aq5JmJlf5u

On Monday, Yoho Mall, a shopping centre connected to the Yuen Long mass transit station, said some shops had closed amid rumours the armed men would return in the evening. Businesses outside the station in Yuen Long were also closed on Monday afternoon, leaving the normally colourful streets eerily quiet. Local public recreation centres were closed at 7pm due to “public safety considerations,” according to Hong Kong’s leisure and cultural services department. Many shops in the normally bustling shopping centres in the towns of Shatin and Tuen Mun have also closed.

Hiring men to beat up protesters is not a new tactic, according to activists and observers, who say thugs were also behind attacks on pro-democracy protests in 2014. Men, possibly from southern China, where the practice is more common, heckled and assaulted demonstrators.

A widely circulated video showed the pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho, who lives in Yuen Long, shaking hands with men in white and giving them a thumbs up. In response to accusations that he had hired the men to go after protesters, Ho said in a press briefing on Monday that he had nothing to do with the attack. Asked why he did not call the police, Ho said: “They appeared to be normal residents, just like the protesters in your eyes.”

Protesters later covered Ho’s office in pro-democracy sticky notes and threw documents of his over an escalator. Several who covered their faces with scarves and hats later broke down a glass wall of his office in a shopping mall in Tsuen Wan. One poster on the wall stuck on by protesters said: “Rural bullies beat up people and carry out terrorist attacks!”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Junius Ho’s office after it was trashed by protesters. Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images

In the early hours of Monday, morning police entered a village near the station in Yuen Long where groups of men in white had gathered but said they had seen no weapons and made no arrests because they “could not be sure of who was involved”.

On Monday, Lam and her colleagues were pressed on why police took so long to reach the attacks, even after several people had called emergency services. The police chief, Stephen Lo, said officers, at the time facing down protesters who had amassed near Beijing’s liaison office, had to be redeployed.

Lam was criticised after lambasting protesters for their “blatant challenge to national sovereignty” before condemning the Yuen Long attack in statements issued late on Sunday after protesters clashed with police. Asked if she would characterise the attack in Yuen Long as a terrorist attack, Lam said only that she condemned all kinds of violence.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators march in Hong Kong on Sunday. Photograph: Ivan Abreu/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

The protests, which began over a bill that would allow suspects in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China, have take on wider demands, including an investigation into police behaviour. The violence in Yuen Long and the police’s response is likely to be the focus of another protest.

On Sunday, thousands of protesters attending a peaceful anti-government march defied the police-sanctioned route and pushed westwards to Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong, where they graffitied the building’s walls, threw eggs at it, and defaced the emblem of the People’s Republic of China.

Speaking outside the building on Monday, Wang Zhimin, the director of Beijing’s liaison office, said an “illegal mob” had “seriously hurt the feelings of the entire Chinese people”. Chinese state media called the attack a “blatant challenge to the central government”.

The demonstrations challenge Beijing’s authority over the former British colony, returned to Chinese control in 1997. Under the one country, two systems framework, Hong Kong is meant to maintain a high degree of autonomy from the mainland, with an independent judiciary and a free press. But critics say they have witnessed Hong Kong’s freedoms quickly disappearing.

Among protesters’ demands are democratic reforms that would give Hong Kongers the ability to directly elect their leaders. Protest groups have vowed to continue until their demands are met. “I don’t see this ending. It looks like it’s just going to escalate … it’s almost becoming ungovernable,” said Victoria Hui, a political scientist from Hong Kong, now at Notre Dame University.
Tens of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of pro-China Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam take over the streets in Sai Wan and Causeway Bay, near China's Hong Kong Liaison Office, despite an official police ban on protests near the Chinese government building.