My Take | John Lee has promised results – now he must deliver
- The sole chief executive candidate’s vision is for an inclusive, vibrant, caring, diverse, free and open city. If this is what his ‘new chapter’ involves, it cannot come soon enough
Twenty years ago, Hong Kong’s leader secured a second term unopposed. Incumbent Tung Chee-hwa was the sole candidate supported by Beijing. This meant no other candidate could get enough nominations to challenge him.
Tung, a shipping tycoon, faced a challenging time. Hong Kong was enduring a severe economic downturn. Controversial new national security laws were in the pipeline. Meanwhile, the world was reeling from the 9/11 terror attacks and the US invasion of Afghanistan. The following year would see an outbreak of the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
On Sunday, a new leader will be elected. Again, there will be no contest. Career policeman John Lee Ka-chiu will, no doubt, receive overwhelming support from the 1,461 privileged members of the Election Committee who get to vote. He, like all winners of the city’s chief executive elections, is Beijing’s chosen candidate.
There are parallels to the past. Hong Kong is facing serious economic headwinds again. The world has, once more, been shaken by an armed conflict, this time Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And Lee has made the passing of new security laws one of his priorities. The city is again grappling with a deadly virus.
The new leader will be anxious to avoid history repeating itself. Tung resigned in 2005, before the end of his second term, after the shelving of his security law proposals following a mass protest.
But Hong Kong today is a different place. Never mind the passage of 20 years, it is the last three that have seen the city transformed. Civil unrest in 2019 was followed by a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing. Opposition figures have been arrested and the political system overhauled to ensure only “patriots” govern Hong Kong. All this took place during the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen the city isolated from the rest of the world.