HONG KONG — Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam steadily climbed her way up bureaucratic ranks to capture the top position in the former British colony, relying on sheer intelligence, ambition, canny networking and an astute deference to authority.

Yet the ground has shifted considerably since she began her civil service career in the 1980s. On Saturday, she appeared to be fighting for her political life as she sought to explain her decision to push through unpopular legislation that would make it easier to extradite suspects to communist-ruled mainland China, which took control of the territory in a 1997 handover.

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