Hong Kong protesters reject leader’s apology, return to streets

HONG KONG - Protesters poured into the streets of Hong Kong Sunday with renewed determination and a lengthening list of demands, rejecting the government’s retreat on a contentious extradition bill and extending the political crisis gripping the semiautonomous territory.

Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, shelved the bill Saturday and followed that up with a rare apology the next day, actions that pro-democracy activists dismissed as too little, too late. And the sheer size of the demonstration - organizers gave an unverified estimate of close to 2 million of the territory’s 7 million people - made clear the public remained unsatisfied.

Many of the protesters said they were disappointed with Lam’s statement, saying it seemed insincere.

“She only did it under pressure,” said Leo Cheng, a 19-year-old student.

The marchers’ resolve is sending tremors to Beijing, where President Xi Jinping’s carefully nurtured image of strength and competence is being put to the test.

“They want to send a message to Beijing,” said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Center for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “If Beijing wants to do something that really infringes upon Hong Kong’s basic value, Hong Kong people will turn out in force, again and again, to pour out their discontent.”

The marchers filled broad avenues and ran the length of downtown Hong Kong, parents with their children, groups of students and numerous retirees. Reflecting their changing mood, most dressed in black, a stark change from the white most wore the previous week.

They chanted and carried signs listing their demands: the complete withdrawal of the bill, not just an indefinite suspension; an impartial investigation into the police use of force during Wednesday’s clashes with protesters; and rescinding the official description of that protest as an illegal riot, which could expose anyone arrested during the violent demonstration to long jail terms.

In contrast to Wednesday, police officers stood by Sunday in a crowd-control role, with no altercations or arrests reported.

There were no immediate plans for another march. But labor unions, which tend to be weak in Hong Kong, have called for different sectors of society to take turns holding strikes of an hour or two Monday, including a general strike by many businesses early Monday afternoon.

Perhaps most broadly, the demonstrators are increasingly demanding the departure of Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong. The many calls for her resignation - and increasingly, for those of her ministers for justice and security - seemed to put in question her continued viability as the territory’s leader.

“Some heads need to roll,” said Emily Lau, former chairwoman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party and still a leading voice in the territory’s democracy movement.

It is far from clear whether that will happen. China’s leaders want to avoid starting the public selection process for a successor, as Carrie Lam does not have an obvious political heir.

A commentary Sunday in the People’s Daily, a news outlet run by the Communist Party, backed the Hong Kong government. But, in a departure from previous commentaries in the state news media, it conspicuously failed to mention Carrie Lam.

In Willy Lam’s estimation, that omission speaks volumes.

“Her days are numbered,” he said. “Beijing has totally lost confidence in her ability.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States is monitoring the protests in Hong Kong and said the situation would be “among the issues” discussed when President Donald Trump meets with Xi at the end of June for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

“We see what’s happening, what’s unfolding in Hong Kong,” Pompeo said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’ll see what Lam’s decision is in the coming days and weeks ahead.”

Over the weekend, Carrie Lam, a no-nonsense civil servant who typically sticks to her positions, did not act as if she was considering stepping down. On Saturday, she said she would delay indefinitely a vote on the bill and on Sunday night issued an unusually apologetic statement, saying that she would “take on criticisms in the most sincere and humble way.”

But if those steps were aimed at mollifying the protesters, they seemed to have the opposite effect, half-measures that, paired with the harsh police conduct Wednesday, further inflamed the crowds.

“I did not come out last Sunday, but today she forced me to come out,” Sze Li, a 30-year-old office worker, said of Lam.

It was the third time in a week that masses shut down the territory’s central roads over a proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, a step that rights activists and others fear would chip away at their remaining freedoms by exposing them to China’s opaque legal system.

The bill has fed rising fear and anger over the erosion of the civil liberties that have long set this former British colony apart from the rest of the country. Local authorities have also rejected demands for free elections and ousted opposition lawmakers, and critics say Beijing’s supporters are diminishing the independence of the territory’s courts and media.

It was a resounding statement that Lam’s political crisis was far from over. Finding little support from her superiors in Beijing, Lam is still trying to thread the needle of restoring order without making concessions that would weaken her standing.

At this juncture, Lam is no closer to passing her unpopular legislation, which she had pushed since February as necessary to address a murder case that could only be tried in Taiwan. Critics see it as a Trojan horse that would allow Beijing to target activists, journalists and others in Hong Kong with dubious charges.

And she is now facing an expanding list of demands from the protesters, who were outraged by the harsh police response Wednesday when some marchers tried to storm a government building, with a few throwing bricks and other projectiles at officers in riot gear. Police pushed back, hitting the protesters with batons, rubber bullets, pepper spray and more than 150 canisters of tear gas.

On Sunday, marchers waved more signs about the conduct of police than about the extradition bill. The chants were varied: “Carrie Lam step down!” “Withdraw the bill!” “We are not rioters!” “Release the arrested students!” Some carried blown-up photos of a bloodied demonstrator from Wednesday.

“Last week, there was only one thing we were marching against,” said Katherine Lam, a 39-year-old data analyst. “But this time, there are a lot more reasons.”