John Lee (李家超) became the only candidate for Hong Kong’s top post by proving his willingness to loyally execute Beijing’s demands despite an international outcry. The question now is whether he can convince China that reopening the Asian financial center to the world would not jeopardize its control.
Lee, a former cop and security minister, emerged as a leading advocate for cracking down on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition over the past three years, defending the police’s use of force against protesters and warning that those who supported the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper would “pay a hefty price.”
Such hard-line positions were central to Beijing’s decision to anoint him as the sole candidate in the chief executive’s election on Sunday, according to interviews with 10 members of the committee appointed to ratify the choice.
At the same time, bankers, diplomats, politicians and others who have met privately with Lee say he has been even-handed and receptive to the concerns of the business community in the beleaguered former British colony.
While most expect him to hold fast to China’s sweeping view of national security, they say he appears more responsive to suggestions than outgoing Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥), who is deeply unpopular after a single five-year term.
One Hong Kong-based diplomat said Lee, 64, has come off during several meetings as a “gentleman” and appears to know how to balance his views.
A member of Hong Kong’s international business community said Lee was open to meeting up and hearing concerns. Hendrick Sin (冼漢迪), a former HSBC Holdings PLC banker and cofounder of locally listed CMGE Technology Group, said Lee was a “good listener and able to analyze quickly.”
“Without strong ties or entangled relationships with business circles and real-estate tycoons, he is seen as impartial — and that is a plus,” said Sin, who nominated Lee for the Election Committee’s innovation and technology sector. “Hong Kong needs to be united, working toward different goals to face its tremendous challenges,” Sin said.
Most of those interviewed, including several others who worked with Lee at various stages of his rise through government, but are not members of the Election Committee, asked not to be identified by name because they were not authorized to speak on his behalf.
The tasks awaiting Lee when he takes office on July 1 are monumental, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) looking to use the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule to demonstrate his success in rolling back foreign influence in the territory. Beijing’s increasing willingness to dictate local policies — imposing a National Security Law and its “zero COVID-19” strategy — has shaken confidence in the territory’s future as a global finance center.
Lee pledged in his campaign platform to enhance Hong Kong’s status as international business center, while cautiously charting a path forward toward managing COVID-19 in a territory still without quarantine-free travel to either the mainland or the rest of the world.
On Thursday, he said that reopening the border was “the first task on my mind” and he would seek to “remove the obstacles to satisfy the requirements” for doing so, without elaborating.
“I know that the current measures are causing some inconvenience,” he said, according to the South China Morning Post. “The current government is taking action to balance the measures against the need for economic development.”
Even before Hong Kong came under greater scrutiny during a wave of sometimes-violent democracy protests in 2019, its leaders struggled to balance the political desires of its 7.4 million people with China’s demands for control. No chief executive has managed to serve two five-year terms. About 24 percent of the public has confidence in Lee, compared with 12 percent for Lam, a survey in March by the Public Opinion Research Institute showed.
Beijing settled on Lee “very late” in the process, in a decision that was likely influenced by the West’s criticism of China’s position on Ukraine, three pro-establishment politicians familiar with the situation said.
Lee — who, like Lam, is already facing US sanctions over his role cracking down on the democratic opposition — was seen as more firm than other contenders such as Hong Kong Secretary of Finance Paul Chan (陳茂波), one of the politicians said.
A former opposition lawmaker now living overseas described Lee as an “executioner” who was prepared to do whatever was asked, and said his selection showed Beijing’s desire to move away from career administrative officers like Lam.
Choosing Chan or another similar candidate might have been misinterpreted as a sign that the security drive was winding down, the former lawmaker said.
Similarly, Hong Kong cannot completely abandon its “zero COVID-19” policy, which Chinese officials attribute directly to Xi and cite as an example of the advantages of their authoritarian model over fractious Western democracies. While the territory has loosened some restrictions compared with China, including allowing non-residents to enter from May 1, it continues to require quarantines of seven days.
“It seems doubtful he’ll be able to fully satisfy Beijing’s anxieties about national security and, at the same time, address the concerns of companies and professionals who operate globally,” said Michael Davis, a law and international affairs professor at O.P. Jindal Global University in India and a former law professor at the University of Hong Kong. “Beijing has seemed willing to put Hong Kong’s financial, human rights, public health, rule of law and reputational concerns in second place behind what it perceives as national security threats.”
Lee last week revealed that he is Catholic, similar to Lam, which is notable given the Chinese Communist Party’s restrictions on religion. He grew up in public housing before joining the police force as a probationary inspector in 1977, and earned a master’s degree in public policy and administration from Charles Sturt University in Australia.
As chief superintendent of the criminal investigation unit, Lee helped Guangdong police investigate the kidnapping of billionaire Li Ka-shing’s (李嘉誠) eldest son, Victor Li (李澤鉅), in the late 1990s, a person who worked under Lee as a police officer on the case said.
The case foreshadowed future battles over Hong Kong’s legal autonomy, after Chinese authorities decided to try, and ultimately execute, the defendant on the mainland. Victor Li, who is now chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd, was among the first tycoons to voice support for Lee’s candidacy as chief executive last month.
In 2012, then-chief executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), whose father had been a police officer, brought Lee into the government as undersecretary for security. Lam promoted him into her Cabinet as security secretary five years later, where he was central to advocating extradition legislation that prompted anti-government rallies of more than 1 million people in 2019. Early on in the protests, he joined Lam in apologizing for the bill, and the “controversies and rifts it has caused in society.”
As Xi’s government lost patience with the increasingly violent demonstrations, Lee followed Lam in taking a harsher tone against the protests and defending police efforts to sweep protesters from the streets. Lee became a chief proponent of the Beijing-drafted National Security Law that has resulted in the arrests of some 182 people, the closure of at least a dozen news organizations and the dissolution of some of the territory’s largest labor unions.
In June last year, the Chinese government fueled speculation that Lee would succeed Lam when it approved his promotion as chief secretary for administration, the territory’s No. 2 position. An overhaul of the local election system ensured that Beijing would face even less opposition from the committee of about 1,460 insiders who must sign off on candidates.
Soon after Lam’s April 4 announcement that she would not seek a second term, China’s Liaison Office circulated word that Lee would be the sole candidate and informed voters when they could pledge their support, said two Election Committee members who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
A third voter asked not to nominate Lee to avoid making the process look illegitimate.
Lee received 786 nominations from the panel, 35 more than the number of votes he needed to win in Sunday’s election. What remains to be seen is whether such support from Beijing gives Lee more freedom to seek compromise on thorny issues, such as “zero COVID-19” and concerns about foreign influence.
“John Lee has said he’s very concerned about ensuring Hong Kong’s reputation as a international center is maintained,” said George Cautherley, vice chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce-Hong Kong. “To do that, you’re going to have to take a much more pragmatic attitude towards how you handle the borders. Well, let’s see. It’s quite difficult.”
The world has become less predictable, less rules-based, and more shaped by the impulses of strongmen and short-term dealmaking. Nowhere is this more consequential than in East Asia, where the fate of democratic Taiwan hinges on how global powers manage — or mismanage — tensions with an increasingly assertive China. The return of Donald Trump to the White House has deepened the global uncertainty, with his erratic, highly personalized foreign-policy approach unsettling allies and adversaries alike. Trump appears to treat foreign policy like a reality show. Yet, paradoxically, the global unpredictability may offer Taiwan unexpected deterrence. For China, the risk of provoking the
Eating at a breakfast shop the other day, I turned to an old man sitting at the table next to mine. “Hey, did you hear that the Legislative Yuan passed a bill to give everyone NT$10,000 [US$340]?” I said, pointing to a newspaper headline. The old man cursed, then said: “Yeah, the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] canceled the NT$100 billion subsidy for Taiwan Power Co and announced they would give everyone NT$10,000 instead. “Nice. Now they are saying that if electricity prices go up, we can just use that cash to pay for it,” he said. “I have no time for drivel like
Young supporters of former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) were detained for posting the names and photographs of judges and prosecutors believed to be overseeing the Core Pacific City redevelopment corruption case. The supporters should be held responsible for their actions. As for Ko’s successor, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), he should reflect on whether his own comments are provocative and whether his statements might be misunderstood. Huang needs to apologize to the public and the judiciary. In the article, “Why does sorry seem to be the hardest word?” the late political commentator Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔) wrote
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) reportedly told the EU’s top diplomat that China does not want Russia to lose in Ukraine, because the US could shift its focus to countering Beijing. Wang made the comment while meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas on July 2 at the 13th China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue in Brussels, the South China Morning Post and CNN reported. Although contrary to China’s claim of neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, such a frank remark suggests Beijing might prefer a protracted war to keep the US from focusing on
RSS