Opinion | Chief executive election 2022: as John Lee’s rise shows, there’s never a dull moment in Hong Kong politics

Name: Hong Kong’s No 2 official John Lee declares bid to become city’s next leader
Uploaded: 2022-04-10T05:30:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 9 s
Description: Hong Kong’s No 2 official John Lee declares bid to become city’s next leader

The former policeman only came to prominence in 2019 and right up to his appointment as chief secretary last year, was not considered in the running to be chief executive

His rise also raises a host of new questions, on the future of administrative officers as the elite of government, for one

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John Lee meets the media at Central Plaza, Wan Chai, on April 8. Photo: Dickson Lee

Mike Rowse

Published: 1:30pm, 10 Apr 2022Updated: 2:57pm, 15 Apr 2022

After many months of speculation, we finally have an answer. Hong Kong’s next chief executive – barring a last-minute earthquake – will be John Lee Ka-chiu. And barring a second earthquake, he will be the only candidate when nominations close next weekend. So his election on May 8 seems assured.

This sequence represents the culmination of a remarkable rise by the former police officer. Lee joined the force as a probationary inspector in 1977, rising to the rank of deputy commissioner. He raised a few eyebrows when he resigned from the police in 2012 after being appointed by then-chief executive Leung Chun-ying as undersecretary for security.

After a full five years in that position, Lee was promoted in 2017 by incoming Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to secretary for security.

Lee really came to prominence in 2019, first through the saga of the extradition bill in the first half of the year, then for his role in tackling the social unrest that scarred the second half, the one feeding directly into the other.

Two interesting rumours about him emerged that year: the first was that the idea of riding on the Taiwan murder incident to radically reform extradition laws was entirely the initiative of Lam, who simply instructed her minister to implement it; the second was that Lee offered to resign to take responsibility for the civil disorder that broke out, but Beijing rejected his resignation.

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Hong Kong’s No 2 official John Lee declares bid to become city’s next leader

In early June last year, I turned my attention for the first time to the upcoming chief executive election, then scheduled for just nine months ahead. A number of names were already being floated. Lam clearly wanted a second term.