Hong Kong gets its new leader without a contest. Now John Lee must deliver and can he cross that chasm of ‘us versus them’?
- Lee is blessed by Beijing and endorsed by the Election Committee, but can he succeed in winning over Hongkongers?
- Hong Kong has more freedoms than mainland cities, but new leader ‘has only one master – Beijing’
Word had it that soon after John Lee Ka-chiu completed his victory press conference on Sunday and exited left from the stage, emotions ran high for Hong Kong’s new chief executive-elect and tears were shed.
As it was, when answering his last question at the presser, his voice trembled as he paid tribute to his wife of 42 years.
Lee’s journey from chief secretary to chief executive within four weeks has been nothing short of extraordinary given how he was the only one to receive Beijing’s blessings to run and he had to cobble together a team and platform within days.
He courted the Election Committee members not because they would not vote for him, but because he wanted these pro-Beijing loyalists to rally as one behind him. He courted the public not because they had any say but because their support would be vital in the coming five years.
Lee became chief executive-elect on Sunday, securing 99.2 per cent, or 1,416 of 1,428 votes from the powerful Election Committee. Eight members, however, voted against him under the anonymous system. The remaining four cast blank votes.
Now Lee, 64, a policeman who rose to the city’s highest office, must deliver on the pledges of change he made during his brief campaign.
An insider said the whirl of emotions for Lee on Sunday came from the relief of victory but also the realisation of the enormity of the tasks in the five years ahead.
All eyes will be on whether Lee will succeed in shaping a new way of running Hong Kong on the “one country, two systems” principle in place since the city returned to China in 1997, guaranteeing the former British colony a high degree of autonomy for 50 years.