Beijing’s handpicked candidate for Hong Kong signals tighter control and disregard of outside criticism
John Lee, who today is Beijing’s single approved candidate for Hong Kong chief executive, speaks at a July 1, 2021, event marking the 24th anniversary of Britain’s handover of the city to China.
HONG KONG — John Lee was not seen as a natural leader for most of the nearly four decades he served on the Hong Kong police force. Former colleagues described him as withdrawn, thoughtful and quiet. At lunch, Lee would eat his homemade sandwiches alone in the office, according to former officers. In a profession known for raucous camaraderie, he was serious and “not particularly pleasant,” one of Lee’s former colleagues said.It is precisely these traits, analysts say, that make the city’s former top security officer, now 64, China’s ideal choice to be Hong Kong’s next chief executive.
A revealing summary of Lee’s appeal was telegraphed this week by the pro-Beijing camp in this city. Lo Man-tuen, vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, wrotethat Beijing’s candidate “has to be a 'man of iron’ ” who can “unflinchingly implement the national security law with no hesitation.”
Lau Siu-kai, vice president of the semiofficial Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said Lee’s biggest strength is his “composure and courage” as demonstrated during the unrest in 2019. Without “entanglement of vested interest groups,” it will be “conducive [for Lee] to fulfill responsibilities towards the central people’s government,” Lau said in an interview this week.In 1977, Lee, then 20, joined the Hong Kong police force, then under British rule, as a probationary inspector.
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