Beijing poised to install ex-security chief as new leader
HONG KONG — China is installing a career security official as the new leader of Hong Kong in the culmination of a sweeping political transformation that has gutted any opposition in the Asian financial center and placed it ever more firmly under Beijing’s control.
John Lee, formerly the city’s No. 2 official, is the only candidate Sunday in what is an election in name only. Well over half of the 1,500-member Election Committee that selects the chief executive has already endorsed him, and he needs only a simple majority to win.
Speaking to supporters Friday, Lee acknowledged that Hong Kong has deep-rooted problems and reiterated his intention to bring a “resultsoriented” approach.
“Hong Kong has to seize its opportunity, we cannot afford to wait, we cannot be late,” the 64-year-old former police officer said. “We will have to consolidate Hong Kong as an international city, to develop Hong Kong’s potential as a free and open society, to connect the mainland of China and the world.”
Lee will replace Carrie Lam on July 1. Her 5-year term was marked by Hong Kong’s most tumultuous period since the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.
The election follows major changes to Hong Kong’s electoral laws last year to ensure that only “patriots” loyal to Beijing can hold office. That also saw the legislature reorganized to all but eliminate opposition voices.
The elaborate arrangements surrounding the predetermined outcome speak to Beijing’s desire for a veneer of democracy. Though they will vote in a secret ballot, Hong Kong’s electors have all been carefully vetted.
“Even autocracies today feel obligated to go through the motions of staging an election in order to project greater legitimacy to their own population and to the international community,” said Yvonne Chiu, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College who has written extensively about Hong Kong politics.
The city’s previous four chief executives were also all effectively Beijing appointees. A push to elect the leader by popular vote foundered in 2014 amid protests demanding Beijing also relinquish the right to approve candidates.
Lee’s rise grew out of major pro-democracy protests in 2019 that spiraled into violent clashes. As security secretary, he led the campaign to confront protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, then rounded many of them up for arrest.
Lam implemented Beijing’s orders and was widely seen as the face of the crackdown. But the career bureaucrat still seemed out of step with China’s hardline president and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
For her successor, Beijing opted for Lee, a staunch advocate of the new National Security Law that outlaws subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. More than 150 activists and others have been arrested since its implementation.
Following passage of the law in 2020, the United States sanctioned Lee, Lam and other Hong Kong and mainland Chinese government officials, for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly.”