路透社表示獲得一段24分鐘英語錄音，揭示香港特首林鄭月娥上周與本港商界人士閉門會面時，承認自己在港引發政治危機，造成「難以寬恕的重大破壞」(unforgivable havoc)，表明「如果自己有選擇，第一件事就是辭職，並深切道歉」(If I have a choice, the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology)，但指目前香港局勢已提升至「國家層面」，指其「在中美空前緊張環境之中，成為關乎主權及國家安全」的議題。她指作為香港特首，自己化解目前危機的政治空間「非常有限」(very limited)。林鄭又在錄音表示，中央並無劃下死線、沒有下令要於十．一國慶前解決反修例危機，又指北京「絕無計劃」(absolutely no plan)出動解放軍。
錄音原文撮要︰
I don't want to spend your time, or waste your time, for you to ask me what went wrong
and why it went wrong.
But for a chief executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable.
It's just unforgivable. If I have a choice, the first thing (I would do) is to quit, having made a deep apology, is to step down. So I make a plea to you for your forgiveness.
I will be very honest with you, it would be naive of me to paint you a rosy picture, that things will be fine or I have a deadline.
But I can assure you that Beijing does not have a deadline. They know this will ripple on. So we have made special arrangements and there will be a first of October National Day celebrations but still having a lot of disruptions, so we are going for a modest, but solemn type of celebrations on the first of October which means that they (Beijing) and ourselves have no expectations that we could clear up this thing before the first of October.
Another thing I want to assure you, that is my own feeling the pulse, and through discussions, CPG (Central People's Government) has absolutely no plan to send in the PLA.
But of course I'm sure that in your hearts you will feel, and I'm sure a large number of people feel that I do have a solution, that is a political one. But I have to tell you that this is where the crux of the matter lies.
Once an issue has been elevated to a national level, to sort of sovereignty and security level, let alone in the midst of this sort of unprecedented tension between the two big economies in the world, the room, the political room for the chief executive who, unfortunately, has to serve two masters by constitution, that is the central people's government and the people of HK, that political room for maneuvering is very, very, very limited.
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They care about the country's international profile. It has taken China a long time to build up to that sort of international profile and to have some say not only being a big economy but a responsible, big economy, so to forsake all those positive developments is clearly not on their agenda.
But they're willing to play long, they are willing to play it long, so you have no short-term solution. Hong Kong suffers, you lose tourism, economy, you lose your IPOs and so but you can't do much about it but after everything has been settled the country will be there to help with maybe positive measures especially in the Greater Bay Area.
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Nowadays it's extremely difficult for me to go out. I have not been on the streets, not in shopping malls, can't go to a hair salon, can't do anything because my whereabouts will be spread around the social media, on Telegram and LIHKG, and you could expect a big crowd of black T-shirts and black masked young people waiting for me.