Hong Kong’s deeply unpopular leader Carrie Lam acknowledged Tuesday that public dissatisfaction with her government fuelled a landslide win by pro-democracy candidates in local elections, but offered no new concessions to resolve months of violent protests. In China, state media sought to downplay and discredit the weekend ballot that delivered a stinging rebuke to the financial hub’s pro-Beijing establishment in what was widely seen as a referendum on Lam’s handling of the unrest. In a rout that stunned the semi-autonomous territory, candidates campaigning against greater control by China seized an overwhelming majority of 452 elected seats in the city’s 18 district councils, bodies that have historically been firmly in the grip of a Beijing-aligned establishment.
