Calling “open, fair and honest” elections in which a single candidate is elected by a carefully chosen committee already seems to tell us something about the personality of the new master. from Hong KongJohn Lee, a 64-year-old named actor whose power locals discovered during the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Coming from a Catholic family, John Lee has spent his entire career in the police, from his recruitment in 1977 to his appointment in 2017 as head of local security. And it is by this last title that he made himself known. In 2019, therefore, faced with the peaceful uprising of nearly two million Hong Kongers demanding respect for the principle of “one country-two systems”, supposed to ensure the former British territory autonomy from China, John Lee showed his intransigence. Denouncing a “terrorist plot hatched by anti-Chinese forces” aiming to sow “chaos”, he organized an ultra-violent repression, gave pledges of seriousness to the Chinese power and thus was able to participate in the political takeover which has monitoring. For example, he actively defended the adoption of the law on national security, making it possible to muzzle any form of opposition.
An election decided upstream by Beijing
His rise then continued, first becoming number 2 in the executive then, from last April, the designated successor to Carrie Lam. Formality now official, the electoral committee having dubbed him by 1416 votes against 8, a sign of confidence on the part of Beijing which hailed this result as being the sign of “recognition and approval” of Hong Kong society towards the action of John Lee. As for his program, it remains unclear, except in terms of security, his eternal obsession.
In a city where one in four inhabitants lives below the poverty line, no new economic measures have been announced. And if he assured that he would specify the details of his action after taking office on July 1, the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China by the United Kingdom, his evocation of the omnipotence of God when a journalist asked him if he felt able to maintain the international financial stature of Hong Kong is not able to reassure.
Since 2020, as a pledge of loyalty to China, John Lee has been one of eleven Hong Kong officials blacklisted by the US Treasury for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy” and “restricting freedom of expression or meeting of citizens”. Even today, under the pretext of the fight against Covid-19, gatherings of more than four people are prohibited. The European Union denounced this election as a “violation of democratic principles”, and judged, through the voice of its head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, that it was “a new stage in the dismantling of the principle “one country-two systems”, which the population sees disappearing with its freedoms”.