HONG KONG – John Lee “will make Hong Kongers and international investors feel at ease, comfortable and brimming with confidence,” a pro-Beijing newspaper claimed. He will help the city “start anew to achieve greater glory,” the state-run China Daily wrote, in a series of articles praising him.
His ascension to the top leadership position is “the centralized embodiment of public opinion”, China’s official branch in Hong Kong said, although only 1,424 members of a government-inspected committee have been identified. vote for him on Sunday, in an uncontrolled race controlled by Beijing.
After officially becoming the next chief executive, Mr. Lee is now a man of Beijing, a security-minded official who can be trusted to follow orders and keep Hong Kong in order. .
His political agenda was the next chapter in China’s vision for the former British colony, launched by wipe out the national security law that was in place two years agoa place to quell dissent in a city once known for its vibrant civil society and free press.
Mr. Lee, a leading architect of the persecution Anti-government protests roiling Hong Kong in 2019, inherit a city that has been tamed and shrunk, with Beijing’s most outspoken critics behind bars or in exile. Unlike his predecessor, he will face little resistance to a legislative system that prioritizes social stability and bureaucratic loyalty, the ideals of China’s ruling Communist Party.
But he will also face a city covered in coronavirus and some of the world’s harshest pandemic restrictions. The economy is shrinking, unemployment is rising and more people are leaving the city, making Hong Kong a global financial hub.
Mr. Lee waved and bowed to voters on Sunday after being declared the winner. “After restoring order from chaos, it is time for Hong Kong to begin a new chapter of development, a chapter towards greater prosperity for all,” he said.
Since Hong Kong was revoked by China in 1997, Beijing has always let it know who it wants in the top job, although it has done so more subtly in the past.
Jiang Zemin, China’s then leader, tacitly supported Tung Chee-hwa, the first chief executive, by inviting him to a long handshake at a 1996 meeting in Beijing. In 2012, the Central Liaison Office, the official agency representing the Chinese government in Hong Kong, quietly telling voters to choose Leung Chun-yingultimate winner.
When Mr. Lee announced his intention to run for office, he noted that he first needed Beijing’s permission to step down as chief secretary, No. 2 job in the city. It was a simple procedural matter, but also a public statement about who carried out the shootings.
Mr. Lee’s ascension to the throne was fully assured a month ago when his predecessor, Carrie Lam, said she would not seek a second term and Beijing approved his candidacy. No one else has collected enough nominations to make the vote.
The process has always been tightly controlled, but this time China has eliminated any aspect of competition or opposition. Between the new election rules and national security legislation, the pro-democracy camp has been effectively neutralized.
As chief secretary, Mr. Lee led a panel that reviewed election commission members’ loyalty last year. On Sunday, 1,416 of them voted for Mr. Lee, with only eight opposing. He will be sworn in on July 1, the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China.
Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, said: “Beijing has completely cornered the electoral commission and turned the process into a merciless competition. means. “Even in Iran, there are more contests for head of government.”
Mr. Lee’s pedigree reinforces Beijing’s intentions in Hong Kong. After joining the police as a trainee inspector at the age of 19, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a security secretary in 2017.
Mr. Lee will be the first former police officer to take up Hong Kong’s top job in more than a century, and security remains his top priority.
He plans to pass a package of new laws on treason, secession, seduction and subversion, collectively known as Article 23. These laws are Hong Kong’s small constitution, the Basic Law, but the leaders Its never passed. The government tried in 2003, but had to back down after hundreds of thousands of people protested.
This time, Mr. Lee will not face the same objection.
News outlets, unions, political parties and human rights groups have closed under pressure from the government and national security investigations. Dozens of pro-democracy politicians and activists are being held pending trial on national security-related charges.
“To deal with future national security threats, it is urgent to perfect the law of Article 23 and the law should be ‘tiger and teeth’,” said the state-owned Ta Kung Pao. said last month.
Mr. Lee is a staunch supporter of the security law. He told the United Nations Human Rights Council in March that the 2020 security law had “restored peace and stability” by ending the “violence, destruction and chaos” of the protests.
He also wants to root out criticism in Hong Kong’s civil service, which has come under attack from pro-Beijing politicians since several government employees joined the 2019 protests. Beijing loyalists also accuse the bureaucracy of resisting efforts to implement coronavirus control measures in the mainland, including lockdowns and mandatory testing.
As chief secretary, Mr. Lee expanded the requirement for public office holders to make honest commitments similar to those required for mainland officials. And he heads a committee to test candidates for elected office, to make sure they’re loyal enough (the same panel that checked his prospective voters).
“We need to make sure that the civil service will honestly implement government policies,” said Lau Siu-kai, Beijing’s adviser on Hong Kong policy.
Mr. Lee has also embraced the idea, popular among mainland Chinese officials, that a lack of housing and economic opportunities helped spark the protests of 2019.
Last month, he toured a crowded residential area in Hong Kong. Committed to creating more public housing, he described the bleak conditions there, referring to a mother and two children living in a 150-square-foot apartment that “occasional cockroaches get in through pipes.” country”.
He said: “Their biggest wish is to be granted public housing as soon as possible to improve the living environment. Longest waiting time for public housing two decades.
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the challenges Mr. Lee will soon face in one of the world’s most expensive and unequal cities.
Life comes to a standstill this year when the Omicron variant infected more than a million residents and engulfed hospitals. Officials have turned to “0 Covid” strategically, closing bars, gyms and schools and reducing meal times at restaurants. The city’s working class has been hit hard by such measures, sending the service sector reeling.
The coronavirus policies, which have isolated much of Hong Kong, have also prompted international companies to reassess the city. Business leaders say they are Fight to hire and keep executives in Hong Kong. More and more companies have to movewhile others have temporarily moved top executives to cities like Singapore.
“This is the city of opportunity; everyone wants to come here,” said Eugenia Bae, headhunter for international banks and financial firms. “Now it’s not a famous city anymore.”
Mr. Lee, who is largely unknown to the business community, has promised to restore Hong Kong’s status as a thriving global hub. He also said he would strengthen financial ties with mainland China.
“We have hopes and expectations that the next leadership will lead Hong Kong out of the pandemic and back on track,” said Frederik Gollob, President of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.
Felix Chung, a former congressman, met Mr. Lee in early 2019, when the future chief executive was drafting a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China and elsewhere – legislation that will soon trigger extraditions. Citywide protests.
At the time, many business leaders questioned the scope of the bill, fearing it would leave them vulnerable to prosecution in the mainland, which is waging a crackdown on corruption. When China first opened up its economy, many businesses operated in legally dubious ways, Chung said.
After several meetings, Mr. Lee agreed to eliminate nine of the 46 types of crimes originally cited in the bill, largely alleviating the concerns of business leaders. Chung said whether Mr. Lee is willing to negotiate as chief executive remains unclear.
“We cannot use past experience to analyze the current situation because a lot of decisions are being made by Beijing,” he said.
Tiffany May contributed reporting.
