Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the formal withdrawal of the extradition bill on Wednesday, Sept. 4.

The proposal of the bill back in June has sparked large-scale rallies that escalated into violent confrontations between frontline protesters and riot police.

While international media touted the latest development as a success brought about by people power, coverage of the news in mainland China has been relatively more muted.

Chinese coverage also tended to focus on the need to restore order and bring economic development back to Hong Kong.

Limited coverage in mainland China

According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), while Beijing's Hong Kong-based agencies released statements almost immediately after Lam's announcement of the bill's suspension back on June 15, none of them made any this time round.

The reason was attributed to the latest announcement being more of a procedural matter despite being a major decision, according to a Hong Kong government source cited by SCMP.

However, a day after Lam made the announcement, she said Beijing respects her decision to formally withdraw the bill, in addition to her earlier decisions to introduce the bill, and to suspend it later on.

This was later reinforced by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who voiced his support for the move on Friday, Sept. 6.

"HK protesters now have no excuse to continue violence"

Media coverage in China reflected the muted response from the official Beijing agencies.

According to SCMP, Beijing has kept a tight control over the coverage of Lam's decision, which was framed as a success on the part of the Hong Kong government to resolve the situation.

Official state-run media, such as People's Daily, ran an article titled, "Carrie Lam: Breaking the political quagmire by making four proposals", which urged the violence to stop, and the need to restore order to society.

China Daily, the English-language state-run media that is mainly geared towards a foreign audience, published an editorial with the headline: "HK protesters now have no excuse to continue violence".

Comments disappeared

Furthermore, discussions surrounding the topic on several posts were canned.

SCMP reported that within a few hours of the broadcast of Lam's announcement, comments responding to the news could no longer be seen on microblogging site Weibo.

Take for instance Chinese media Global Times, a tabloid-style newspaper under the Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece People's Daily.

While a post on the move garnered more than 2,500 comments, none of the comments made are now visible.

The term "withdraw" was also the most-searched term on Freeweibo.com, a site that monitors posts that have been deleted on Weibo, as of Friday, Sept. 6.

Why the censorship?

Analysts told SCMP that the decision by Beijing to stem the growing discussions was to minimise public criticism, which might potentially become directed towards them instead.

Beijing might also want to deter mainland Chinese from thinking that protests work in getting the government to accede to their demands.

Mainland Chinese netizens react

Still, not all comments on the platform were removed.

While the Hong Kong protesters view the government's move as "too little, too late", saying that they would continue to fight for the remaining four demands to be met, several mainland Chinese netizens see it differently.

They see the decision as a compromise on the part of the government towards the "rioters", which will not work as the protesters would simply demand for more instead.

They also hold the view that the government's placation means that protesters now no longer have any reason to "riot", and that any continuation of the protests would warrant a legitimate military response from Beijing.

"Advancing by retreating, taking away the protesters' disguise, let's see how you guys are going to continue causing trouble?"

"Let's see how you're gonna continue now. If you still carry on making trouble, we'll arrest you."

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"Now that the bill is withdrawn, if the good-for-nothing youths continue to riot, then (Beijing) should show its hand (release the army).

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"Let me translate it: (The Hong Kong government) compromised."

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"Why would (the Hong Kong government) even introduce this in the beginning? They should have either persisted and not give in to the protesters (the legal system is not to be messed with), or withdraw the bill before the situation escalated. Now that things have come to this point, they've decided to release a fart. Hong Kong is already torn apart. Can the pro-democracy and pro-Beijing factions still have a dialogue with each other? These wimps are so easily taken in (by the protesters)."

Top image by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images