ABSTRACT
Despite the powerful expression of energized public opinion in the July 1 protest, the SAR administration did not provide any quick indication of whether the government would make any last-minute concessions on national security legislation. Intensive discussions and negotiations, of course, can be supposed to have been going on behind the doors, but no groundbreaking news reached the public until three days later. On July 4, James Tien, chairperson of the pro-business Liberal Party and a member of the government’s Executive Council, visited Chinese officials in the Hong Kong and Macau Office in Beijing. The Liberal Party held eight seats in the 60-seat legislature at the time, but such was the balance of power within the legislature that the defection of the eight votes could be enough to put the bill into serious jeopardy. Therefore, eyebrows were raised when Tien returned to Hong Kong in the evening and publicly urged the postponement of the bill’s second reading.
