Mrs Lam told reporters “the bill is dead” and admitted the attempts to push the bill was a “complete failure”. Opponents of the bill said it would make the 7 million residents of the city and any visitors liable to political prosecution from Mainland authorities and undermine the legal autonomy of the former British colony. The bill came about after a Hong Kong couple visited Taiwan where the boyfriend was wanted on suspicion of murdering his girlfriend, an extradition bill was proposed to allow the Chief executive to extradite Hong Kongers to any territory which lacks a formal treaty with the city on a case by case basis.
That process would include China with detractors having long accused Beijing from having an unfair legal system.
Hong Kong operates under one country, two systems, which allows it and Macau to operate under separate political, economic and legal systems from Mainland China.
Mrs Lam said: “I have almost immediately put a stop to the amendment exercise, but there are still lingering doubts about the government’s sincerity, or worries whether the government will restart the process in the legislative council, so I reiterate here: There is no such plan, the bill is dead.”
At least four protestors have killed themselves over the increasingly tense situation, which has seen violent clashes between police and protestors as well as a storming of the city’s Legislative Council, their equivalent of the House of Commons.
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Mrs Lam said that the majority of protestors remaining peaceful made her “proud of the quality of Hong Kong people” but added “a very small minority of protesters have used the occasion to resort to violent acts and vandalism.”
She told reporters: “We are sad to see these violent acts because they undermine the rule of law in Hong Kong.
“So I make a very sincere plea here, that in the future, if anyone in Hong Kong have any different views — especially those about the Hong Kong government’s policies — please continue to uphold the value of expressing it in a peaceful and orderly manner.”
She said calls for amnesty to those arrested are “not acceptable” but said an independent inquiry would be arranged to look into the police handling of the situation and asked for time to “improve the current situation”.
Hong Kong’s legal autonomy was called into question in 2015 when five staff of Causeway Bay Books went missing and were found to have been taken to China without the travel documents needed to cross the border.
Then British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond condemned the move accusing China of taking a decision that was “a serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong and undermines the principle of one country, two systems”.
Citizens of the financial hub have stopped the government forcing through unpopular legislation before.
In 2003, half a million Hong Kongers protested preventing the passing of Article 23, a bill that would have prevented any subversion of the central government in Beijing or Chinese Communist Party.