Protests Unavoidable Due To Anti-govt Force, Says CE

Outgoing Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Sunday said she didn't think the government could have avoided the 2019 anti-extradition bill protests - even if she had compromised.

Speaking on a TVB programme, she said "an anti-central government force" had formed over the past two decades, amid changes in society, and this force had encouraged Hong Kong independence and promoted violence.

When asked whether she felt responsible for pressing ahead with the extradition bill, Lam said the matter wasn't that simple.

"So today, I'm not so naive as to think that if I had casually made a so-called compromise... that we could have avoided this major social conflict," she said.

"Some people even called it a boil; it's going to burst no matter what. If it doesn't burst today, it will burst the next year, or the year after."

Lam said she understood that people were unhappy, disappointed and even depressed, given the protests and the Covid pandemic.

But the outgoing leader said the One Country Two Systems principle had now been brought back on the right track.

She added that since the handover, not enough had been done to promote the understanding of One Country, Two Systems and national education, so more public education and explanation was needed going forward.