HK leader insists she will stay on

Hong Kong's embattled leader insisted yesterday she had no intention of stepping down after an audio recording emerged of her saying she wanted to quit over three months of unrest in the southern Chinese city.

Hong Kong has endured dozens of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests triggered by opposition to Chief Executive Carrie Lam's bid to push through a law allowing extraditions to mainland China.

The protests have evolved into a wider democracy campaign involving clashes between protesters and police, in the biggest challenge to China's rule of Hong Kong since its 1997 handover from the British.

"I told myself repeatedly in the last three months that I and my team should stay on to help Hong Kong," Lam told a press conference yesterday morning.

Lam said she had "not even contemplated" discussing her resignation with the Chinese government, which gives Hong Kong a restricted form of autonomy.

"The conflict that I myself want to quit but cannot quit does not exist," she said.

Lam was speaking after Reuters news agency released an audio recording of her telling business leaders last week that she wanted to step down and take responsibility for the unrest.

"For a chief executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable," an emotional Lam said in the audio recording.

"If I have a choice," she said, speaking in English, "the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology."

Lam told the business leaders she had "very limited" room to resolve the crisis because it had become a national security and sovereignty issue for China. 

Beijing yesterday repeated its support for the chief executive, but warned it would "never allow the situation in Hong Kong to continue unabated".