Hong Kong chief executive election 2022: why did Beijing pick John Lee to be the city’s next leader?

Former No 2 official became Beijing’s favourite almost overnight, leaving many wondering what the central government saw in the police officer-turned-minister

Observers note his mainland networks, unquestioning loyalty to Beijing and unencumbered status with no vested interests or ties to tycoons

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Published: 7:00am, 15 Apr 2022Updated: 9:24am, 15 Apr 2022

Being beaten up and robbed by gangsters was not an uncommon experience for a young boy growing up on a public housing estate in Hong Kong half a century ago. But for John Lee Ka-chiu, the man on track to become the city’s next leader, this childhood ordeal instilled in him “the importance of law and order”, he once recalled.

That lesson appeared to stay with him. At the age of 20, Lee gave up an offer to study engineering at university and instead chose a career with the police force, where he rose through the ranks to become a deputy commissioner before becoming a political appointee as undersecretary for security and eventually claiming the Security Bureau’s top job.

On Wednesday, Lee submitted nominations from more than half of the small-circle committee that will pick the next chief executive on May 8, after announcing his bid on Saturday as the sole hopeful backed by Beijing. Nomination campaigns for Hong Kong’s leadership election previously lasted months, but this one was effectively over within days.

Chief executive hopeful John Lee submits his nominations for the election. Photo: Sam Tsang

The speed with which Lee went from possible candidate to the man most favoured to win has been nothing short of astounding. Many have been left wondering what the career police officer-turned-minister is bringing to the table that has convinced the central government he is the best man to lead a city divided by politics and drained by a pandemic.

Comments by analysts and insiders suggested that the escalating pressure China faces over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and British and American accusations that civil liberties are declining in Hong Kong could have prompted Beijing to pick a strongman who could fight back, break stalemates at home and faithfully execute policies at the halfway point of the city’s “one country, two systems” governing formula.

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

“Strongman politics are at play now,” said Wilson Chan Wai-shun, an international relations scholar at Chinese University. “Lee’s toughness made him stand the highest chance [compared with others] to achieve the result Beijing hoped for amid the ongoing US-China tensions and dilemma in the diverging coronavirus-control policies globally.”

Against this geopolitical landscape is a red-letter item on the domestic calendar: the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule. It is being dubbed by many in the pro-establishment camp as a “second return” or a new beginning after a period of disorder sparked by the 2019 anti-government protests now quashed by the national security law. Analysts said Lee was seen by Beijing as the man who could refocus Hong Kong towards the goals of “long-term stability and prosperity” as guaranteed by the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, and continue with the “cleaning up” needed to break away from past trajectories of unruly politics and activism.

Hong Kong chief executive election 2022: why did Beijing pick John Lee to be the city’s next leader?

Former No 2 official became Beijing’s favourite almost overnight, leaving many wondering what the central government saw in the police officer-turned-minister Observers note his mainland networks, unquestioning loyalty to Beijing and unencumbered status with no vested interests or ties to tycoons