On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, attempted to end what has been the territory’s worst political crisis in decades by declaring a controversial extradition bill that set off weeks of protests “dead”. Yet the operative word protesters were looking for was “withdraw”, or chit wui, a key demand of the demonstrators to formally withdraw the bill from parliament. Lam has said the bill, already suspended last month in response to protests, would expire at the end of the legislative session that finishes next July. Instead she used a Cantonese idiom to describe “reaching the end of one’s life”.
