Legco Rivals Trade Blame After Talks Break Down

Talks between lawmakers from the two rival camps aimed at resolving the deadlock over the extradition law bill broke down after just 20 minutes on Thursday, with both sides accusing the other of not being sincere.

Speaking after the meeting, the convenor of the pro-establishment camp, Martin Liao, said the pan-democrats had shown no sincerity in finding a way out.

He said the pan-dems had merely repeated their demand for his camp to help lobby for the withdrawal of the bill, and to accept Democrat James To as the committee’s chairman.

“These two conditions are just positions they have taken for sometime now, not just today. We don’t really need a meeting to discuss this, because they knew our answers,” said Liao.

“And therefore, I do not believe that they have the sincerity to conduct a serious negotiation and this is just a PR show,” he added.

But pan-democrat camp convenor Claudia Mo rejected Liao's claim and said the opposition were sincere in their approach.

Mo said they were hoping their rivals would bring some new ideas to trigger discussion on how to end the standoff, but there was no such thing.

“I’m not surprised at all with the Beijing loyalists response, that they would just say ‘no’ and ‘no’ to our two points,” said Mo.

“But I would like to stress that the ball is now indeed in [Chief Executive] Carrie Lam’s court, because she’s the starter of this entire saga,” she added.

The committee vetting the bill has so far failed to achieve anything due to a conflict between the pro-government and pro-democracy camps over which lawmaker has the right to lead the panel.

The pro-establishment camp and the Legco secretariat both said Abraham Shek is the legitimate presiding leader of the committee.

Anger between the two sides has led to chaotic scenes in the legislature.

James To had proposed that the government join tripartite talks on the impasse, but the administration said officials shouldn't intervene in the selection of a chairman for the bills committee, saying this formed part of Legco's internal affairs.