Hong Kong’s embattled leader has endured a barrage of criticism at a town hall meeting that laid bare anger coursing through the city after months of huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
Carrie Lam faced more than two hours of grilling at a public “dialogue session” on Thursday night, the first time her pro-Beijing administration has sat down with its critics in 16 consecutive weeks of unrest.
Millions have hit the streets while hardcore activists have clashed repeatedly with police in the biggest challenge to China’s rule since the city’s handover from Britain in 1997.
During the evening Lam dismissed accusations that the meeting was a public relations exercise, saying she was there to listen as she admitted trust in her government had “fallen off a cliff”.
“The biggest responsibility lies with myself, I won’t shirk the responsibility,” she said.
More than 20,000 people applied to attend Thursday’s meeting, with authorities picking 150 in a lottery.
Questions were chosen at random and, compared with the angry demonstrations on Hong Kong’s streets this summer, the atmosphere remained cordial inside the sports stadium where the gathering took place. However, thousands massed outside the venue to chant slogans.
After the gathering ended, riot police formed lines in a street nearby as smaller crowds of masked protesters stayed behind and it was unclear if Lam’s motorcade was able to leave the complex.
Lam received little sympathy from audience members who rounded on her in speech after speech highlighting a litany of complaints towards her administration.
Most called on her to launch an independent commission of inquiry into allegations of police brutality and how the protests have been handled.
“The police have become a political tool of the government and right now there is no way to check police abuses of power,” one woman said, hiding her face with a surgical mask.
“Everyone has lost confidence in police,” another female audience member said. Another said police had been left to deal with an issue that can only be solved politically.
Others called for universal suffrage. Currently the chief executive is chosen by a pro-Beijing committee and only half the city’s lawmakers are directly elected.
“You say you want to listen to the people, but the people have been voicing their demands for three months,” one male attendee said.
One speaker likened Hong Kong’s condition to having cancer. “And you want to heal the illness with a few painkillers,” she said.
Of the 30 people chosen to speak throughout the evening, 24 openly criticised the government, two made neutral comments and four expressed sympathy for Lam’s administration.
Quick GuideWhat are the Hong Kong protests about?
Show
Why are people protesting?
The protests were triggered by a controversial bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where the Communist party controls the courts, but have since evolved into a broader pro-democracy movement.
Public anger – fuelled by the aggressive tactics used by the police against demonstrators – has collided with years of frustration over worsening inequality and the cost of living in one of the world's most expensive, densely populated cities.
The protest movement was given fresh impetus on 21 July when gangs of men attacked protesters and commuters at a mass transit station – while authorities seemingly did little to intervene.
Underlying the movement is a push for full democracy in the city, whose leader is chosen by a committee dominated by a pro-Beijing establishment rather than by direct elections.
Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core demands are met, such as the resignation of the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested and a permanent withdrawal of the bill.
Lam announced on 4 September that she was withdrawing the bill.
Why were people so angry about the extradition bill?
Beijing’s influence over Hong Kong has grown in recent years, as activists have been jailed and pro-democracy lawmakers disqualified from running or holding office. Independent booksellers have disappeared from the city, before reappearing in mainland China facing charges.
Under the terms of the agreement by which the former British colony was returned to Chinese control in 1997, the semi-autonomous region was meant to maintain a “high degree of autonomy” through an independent judiciary, a free press and an open market economy, a framework known as “one country, two systems”.
The extradition bill was seen as an attempt to undermine this and to give Beijing the ability to try pro-democracy activists under the judicial system of the mainland.
How have the authorities responded?
Beijing has issued increasingly shrill condemnations but has left it to the city's semi-autonomous government to deal with the situation. Meanwhile police have violently clashed directly with protesters, repeatedly firing teargas and rubber bullets.
Beijing has ramped up its accusations that foreign countries are “fanning the fire” of unrest in the city. China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi has ordered the US to “immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs in any form”.
Lily Kuo and Guardian reporter in Hong Kong
But it is unclear what, if anything, Lam can offer. Both she and Beijing have ruled out any further concessions to protesters, whose five demands include an independent inquiry into police conduct, an amnesty for more than 1,500 people arrested and fully free elections.
On Wednesday, a top Chinese envoy in the city described those demands as “political blackmail”, raising concerns that Lam has been given little wiggle room to de-escalate simmering public anger towards her administration and the police.
Throughout her appearance on Thursday Lam resisted making concrete commitments beyond continuing to listen to people and holding more town halls.
Police maintained a low presence near the venue but local media said 3,000 officers were on standby in case of clashes.
This summer’s unrest was ignited by a now-scrapped proposal to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland. But it has since snowballed into a wider movement pushing for democracy and police accountability after Beijing and Lam took a hard line.
The city is bracing itself for a fresh round of protests in coming days, with Saturday marking five years since the pro-democracy umbrella movement kicked off and Tuesday being the 70th anniversary of communist China’s founding.