Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam's town hall fails to persuade protesters

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's beleaguered leader addressed the public with warmth and humility but failed to get an equal response. In the face-off session with her audience, Carrie very patiently faced the angry audience that blew up at her with aggressive remarks at a town hall session on Thursday due to her refusal to provide more concessions to finally end more than three months of anti-government protests that have rocked the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. 

Read: Hong Kong: Carrie Lam Open For Dialogue With Public To Ease Tensions

"She's a brave leader": Will Lam 

After the session ended, Carrie preferred to stay inside the building for an extra hour to avoid any more confrontation from the angry protesters outside the town hall. However, her strategy of using the community engagement to buy some goodwill that will lower down the aggression among her audience ahead of rallies planned this weekend in the lead-up to October 1 celebrations of China's National Day, seems to disappoint her.  

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Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Center for China Studies at Hong Kong's Chinese University stated that Carrie showed courage and sincerity, Although, willy is nowhere related to the Hong Kong leader. He also added that She sat through more than two hours of humiliation and demonstrated at least willing to hear radically different views. She is an incredible person, brave enough to face opposition but still, it's not good enough. 

The Hong Kong protests are in opposition to a proposed law that would have allowed some criminal suspects to be sent for trial on the mainland, but has widened into an anti-government war spurred by widespread concern that Beijing has been eroding the autonomy Hong Kong was promised when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. 

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Carrie pledges to work to regain public trust 

During the Town Hall session, Carrie pledged to work to regain public trust and shouldered the responsibility for causing political havoc with the extradition bill. However, she did not guarantee any concrete actions she will take apart from promises to listen and address deep-seated societal woes such as a lack of affordable housing that the government believes has contributed to the protests. 

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Lam stood her ground against demands for an impartial inquiry into accusations of police brutality in opposition to protesters and the unconditional release of greater than 1,500 human beings detained because the protests commenced in June. She additionally sidestepped calls for direct elections of the city's leaders.