support for the protests. Several international corporations and businesses including the National Basketball Association and Activision Blizzard decided to appease China during the protests and faced intense criticisms. The Diplomat called the Yellow Economic Circle "one of the most radical, progressive, and innovative forms of long-term struggle" during the protests. Corporations perceived to be pro-Beijing faced boycotts, and some were vandalised. Meanwhile, "yellow" shops allied with protesters enjoyed a flurry of patrons even during the coronavirus crisis. Governance Lam's administration was criticised for its performance during the protests – her perceived arrogance and obstinacy, and her reluctance to engage in dialogue with protesters. Her extended absences, stonewalling performance at press conferences, were all believed to have enabled the protesters to escalate events. According to public opinion polls, approval ratings of Lam and her government were the lowest among all chief executives, with Lam's rating plunged to 19.5 out of 100 in November 2019. Her performance and those of Secretary for Security John Lee and Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng were called "disastrous". On 2 September, Reuters received a leaked audio recording in which Carrie Lam admitted that she had "very limited" room to manoeuvre between the Central People's Government and Hong Kong, and that she would quit, if she had a choice. However, the next day she told the media that she had never contemplated discussing her resignation with the Beijing authorities. Lam's behaviour on this and later occasions strengthened the perception among a broad part of the protesters and their supporters that she was not able to make any crucial decision without instructions from the Beijing government, effectively serving as its puppet. Distrust toward the government and the lack of police accountability also led to the temporary prevalence of conspiracy theories. Both sides claimed that rule of law in Hong Kong was undermined during the protests. While the government, the police and government supporters criticised the protesters for breaking the law and using violence to "extort" the government to accept the demands, the protesters and their sympathisers felt that lack of police oversight, selective law enforcement, selective prosecution, police brutality, and the government's blanket denial of all police wrongdoings all harmed rule of law and expressed their disappointment that the law cannot help them achieve justice. The judiciary was also scrutinised after judge Kwok Wai-kin dedicated much of his sentencing statement to comment on the negative impacts of the