Hong Kong leader admits extradition bill is ‘dead’ after weeks of violent protests

Hong Kong’s chief executive has declared that the controversial extradition bill is “dead,” admitting that the government’s work to amend the legislation which sparked weeks of protests in the city was a “complete failure.”

“The cause of all these grievances and confrontations is an exercise to amend the fugitive offenders’ ordinance,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam admitted at a press conference on Tuesday, noting that she almost immediately put a stop to the amendment in question.

However, the numerous protests that had since engulfed Hong Kong showed that the people were still worried the government would restart the process in the Legislative Council. Lam insisted that these concerns were groundless.

“I reiterate here – there is no such plan. The bill is dead,” she pledged.

The legislation in question would have allowed Hong Kong to transfer suspects for trials in mainland China. The bill’s critics feared that this would expose detainees to crooked trials in courts controlled by the Communist Party. In the past month, more than a million people took part in rallies to oppose the Beijing-backed bill, even after Lam announced its indefinite suspension and apologized to the nation.

In her Tuesday address, Lam also pleaded with people to give the government “an opportunity, the time, the room, to take Hong Kong out of the current impasse and try to improve the current situation.”