HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam says she has never asked China for permission to resign over the historic unrest rocking the city, while acknowledging that she discussed her struggles in a closed-door meeting with business leaders. 

At a news briefing on Tuesday (Sept 3) in Hong Kong, Mrs Lam denounced the leak of audio from the meeting, which was reported late on Monday by Reuters, as “unacceptable”.

She said she was committed to seeing the city through the unrest, and had only attempted to explain that it would be “an easy choice” for anyone to leave under such circumstances. 

“I have never tendered a resignation to the central people’s government,” Mrs Lam told reporters. “I have not even contemplated to discuss a resignation with the central people’s government. The choice of not resigning is my own choice.”

The comments follow a fresh wave of pro-democracy protests, including clashes in which demonstrators hurled scores of petrol bombs and police responded with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

The unrest began almost three months ago, when hundreds of thousands of people turned out to oppose Mrs Lam’s now-suspended proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China. 

Mrs Lam has so far refused the protesters’ demands, including the formal withdrawal of the legislation, her resignation and an independent inquiry into the unrest.

Mrs Lam told a closed-door meeting of business people last week that she had caused “unforgivable havoc”, and would quit if she had a choice, Reuters reported late on Monday, citing an audio tape of her remarks. 

Mrs Lam’s news conference came ahead of a planned briefing from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, China’s top body governing the city, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. At a previous briefing, the office’s spokesman warned protesters that “those who play with fire will perish by it”.

As protests drag on, Mrs Lam – a career bureaucrat appointed by Beijing to lead the territory – has found herself under increasingly intense pressure. 

The Hong Kong leader is effectively squeezed between raucous local protesters pushing for greater democratic freedoms and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s one-party government, which is trying to quell the protests while managing a trade war with the United States.

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