China says, Report claiming to replace HK Chief Executive Lam not true

China has rejected reports that is it planning to remove Hong Kong's controversial Chief Executive Carrie Lam and has described it as a political rumour with ulterior motives. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying has decried a report by Financial Times which said that China has plans to replace Lam with an interim Chief Executive.

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What did the report say? 

As per the Financial Times report which cited unnamed people, Beijing had plans to replace Lam with an interim leader by March 2020 next year. It stated that candidates for the job include former financial  Secretary Henry Tang Ying-nien and Norman Chan Tak-lam who was the previous boss of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Speculation about who will succeed Lam has been going on since the hint she dropped last month that she wants to quit.

Consequently, a private recording came out in which Lam said that if she has a choice, she will quit the first thing. However, she later said that she never submitted any resignation but did not deny the recording.  It has been widely reported that Beijing has not given her permission to resign. 

The Chinese government has been in a predicament over managing the protests which have been wreaking havoc over the city since over 4 months now.  The Chinese government has been backing Lam and Hong Kong police who face allegations of a violent crackdown against the demonstrators.

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Background

The protests have been over a bill which was targetted at extraditing locals for prosecution in the mainland China-controlled courts. Since June, Hong Kong has seen violent protests with tens of thousands of people who have been demanding the local administration to scrap the bill. Lam earlier that the bill is dead but later refused to withdraw it as protests continued. 

With global pressure, the Hong Kong government finally withdrew the controversial bill over 20 weeks of protests now which have called for a broader democratic change. Apart from the scrapping of the bill, the protesters are demanding a Lam's resignation and investigation into police excesses and universal franchise of one person one vote with freedom for all locals to contest elections for Hong Kong legislature. 

Besides the demand to withdraw the bill, the protestors are also calling for Lam's resignation, an inquiry into police brutalities and universal franchise of one person one vote with freedom for all the locals to contest the elections for the legislature.

(With inputs from PTI) 

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