Hong Kong’s Retreat Chips Away at Xi Jinping’s Iron Image – The New York Times

President Trump and Mr. Xi are expected to meet in less than two weeks at the summit, in Osaka, although formal trade talks between them have not yet been confirmed.

Mr. Xi has never publicly commented on the Hong Kong matter, but two of the seven members of the governing Politburo Standing Committee that he presides over — Wang Yang and Han Zheng — expressed their support for the legislation.

On Friday, a vice foreign minister in Beijing summoned the deputy chief of mission at the American Embassy to complain about a congressional bill, drawn up in support of the protesters, that called for a broad review of Washington’s relationship with Hong Kong.

The suspension of the legislation — which stopped short of dropping it altogether — has fueled concerns that Mrs. Lam’s retreat was a tactical one, probably endorsed at least tacitly by Beijing. She met with senior Chinese officials on Friday before announcing her decision the following day, a person with knowledge of the government’s policymaking said. She declined to comment on Saturday on any private meetings she might have had.

Mr. Xi is not prone to concession or compromise, especially when under threat, as Mr. Trump has learned during his public efforts to negotiate an end to the trade war. This latest setback, analysts said, could be merely temporary.

“Postponement is not withdrawal,” Ryan Hass, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as the director for China at the National Security Council during the Obama administration, wrote in an email. “Beijing likely will be willing to let Lam take heat for mismanaging the process of securing passage of the bill, bide its time, and wait for the next opportunity to advance the legislation.”