Transcript of remarks by CE at media session in Beijing (with photos/videos)

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session in Beijing to conclude her duty visit this afternoon (December 16):
 
Reporter: Mrs Lam, in your meeting with President Xi, did you discuss the topic about national security or a cabinet reshuffle or even the possibility of establishing a commission of inquiry with President Xi or Mr Li Keqiang? And secondly, you know, meeting with the two state leaders, they basically said Hong Kong has yet to overcome difficulties and repeated that violence has to end. Does it mean that Beijing leaders are of the view that in the past months you have made very little progress in improving Hong Kong's situation?
 
Chief Executive: On your first question, I'm afraid I cannot disclose the details of my meetings with the two leaders. The purpose of my duty report is to give our leaders a full account of what has happened in Hong Kong in the last 12 months. This year is a rather special one because in the last six months, Hong Kong has been haunted by this social unrest, disturbances and violent acts, so I spent a bit more time to give them an account of where things stand, and in their opening remarks, they also made comments in particular on this phenomenon.
 
     As you will notice from the opening remarks of the two leaders, they did endorse the efforts made by the Hong Kong SAR Government and by myself in trying to end the violence that we have seen. They have also said that this is unprecedented. What we are now facing is a situation that has never happened in Hong Kong after reunification. Given the severity of the situation and the difficulties that we are facing, I can say that the leaders are fully appreciative of the efforts needed in order to achieve the objective. It is particularly worthwhile to highlight that in his opening remarks President Xi Jinping also mentioned that he very much hoped that all sectors in Hong Kong society will join hands in order to achieve this objective of ending the violence and return Hong Kong to a normal situation. That has also been my appeal over the last few months and I hope very much that Hong Kong people will help the SAR Government and support the Police in achieving this mission.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)