{"id":189962,"date":"2019-06-15T14:54:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T14:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=189962"},"modified":"2019-06-18T07:18:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T07:18:02","slug":"hong-kong-leader-suspends-extradition-bill-amid-protest-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=189962","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong leader suspends extradition bill amid protest pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction \u2013 June 15, 2019<\/h1>\n

The decision to suspend the bill — reportedly made after a meeting with one of China\u2019s most powerful leaders on Friday \u2013 is an example of a government bowing to the will of the people it governs.<\/h5>\n
It is, in contrast, a measure of how governments in the supposedly \u201cfree West\u201d are turning increasingly dictatorial and totally oblivious to the demands of their citizens. In France, for example, weeks of protests by the Yellow Vests movement have drawn little from Macron other than token gestures of appeasement.<\/h5>\n
In essence this means that ordinary citizens in China probably have more say in the running of their government than do citizens in France, or anywhere else in the supposedly democratic west for that matter.<\/h5>\n
Even if citizens in the west do exercise their will peacefully and democratically they are still ignored.<\/h5>\n
Brexit is an example. Three years ago Britons voted to leave the European Union. After three years of “negotiations” the United Kingdom is STILL a member of the European Union. While the resignation of a lying and conniving Theresa May has only prolonged Britain’s departure.<\/h5>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s time we in the West started thinking beyond orchestrated elections as a means to bring about political change. Ed.<\/h5>\n

Hong Kong leader suspends extradition bill amid protest pressure<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Emma Graham-Harrison and Verna Yu \u2013 The Guardian June 15, 2019<\/h2>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s leader, Carrie Lam, has suspended indefinitely efforts to pass a controversial new extradition law<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, after a week of mass protests and street violence put heavy pressure on the city\u2019s leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in a defensive press conference, the chief executive insisted her only errors were of communication, defending the much-criticised bill as vital to Hong Kong\u2019s security and promising to relaunch an improved version after further consultation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking out after three days of silence, and on the eve of another major protest march called for Sunday, Lam repeatedly described herself as \u201cheartbroken\u201d and admitted that the bill had \u201ccaused a lot of division\u201d in Hong Kong<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

She denied that the abrupt reversal \u2013 reportedly made after meeting one of China\u2019s most powerful leaders on Friday \u2013 was aimed at warding off further chaos, after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to oppose the law.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision I made is not about pacifying people or, as some have said, restoring my damaged reputation,\u201d Lam said, repeatedly brushing off questions about whether she planned to resign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hong Kong was plunged into crisis by government attempts to ram the law through the territory\u2019s legislature. Hundreds of thousands of protesters thronged the city\u2019s streets this week<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>to oppose it, with police brutality <\/strong><\/span><\/a>and government intransigence adding to public outrage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The announcement came after Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, reportedly met with one of China\u2019s most powerful leaders on Friday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189962"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189966,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189962\/revisions\/189966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}