With an escalating U.S. trade war, a faltering economy and tensions in the South China Sea vexing her bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam appeared in no mood to compromise on a planned extradition law at recent meetings, according to foreign envoys and business people who met with her.
Some of the people at those meetings in recent weeks pointed to media reports that even Hong Kong's usually reticent judges were worried about the proposed law, which threatened to send people for trial in mainland China for the first time.
But Lam bluntly dismissed concerns about the Chinese justice system, which is widely criticized for forced confessions, arbitrary detentions and one-sided trials, saying judges were not supposed to speak.