Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has finally bowed to pressure and withdrawn the China extradition bill, a key demand by protesters.
The extradition bill would have seen Hong Kong residents taken to the mainland of China to face charges.
Protesters took to the streets in their millions to demand that the government withdraws the bill, plunging Hong Kong into a state of crisis.
The dramatic withdrawal came after a meeting between Carrie Lam and her cabinet on Wednesday.
In June, Lam announced that she had suspended deliberations on the bill but the protesters said that the concession did not go a long way.
Protests became even more intense in spite of the concession.
They had feared that the bill could be revived in the future, a prospect that they were not willing to stomach.
It remains to be seen whether the full withdrawal of the contentious bill will return the territory to normalcy.
Media reports early this week indicated that the embattled chief executive officer had contemplated tendering her resignation to the Chinese government.
She, however, rejected the reports saying that she had never toyed with the idea of resigning from her leadership position.
Reports of a full formal withdrawal will come as a relief to pro-democracy demonstrators deeply concerned about the territory's slide into autocracy.