Former Hong Kong security chief John Lee is set to take charge of the city, his key role in suppressing the pro-democracy movement having made this former street policeman a safe man for Beijing.
At 64, the only candidate for the post of chief executive of Hong Kong was unanimously appointed on Sunday by a committee of 1,461 personalities acquired in Beijing.
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John Lee will be Hong Kong's first leader from a security force background.
Coming from the working class, he had started his career as a simple uniformed policeman.
After 35 years in the police, he entered government in 2012 and enjoyed a meteoric rise.
Local media say he got a "
platinum lift
".
He was, since last year, the number two of the executive.
The man had notably managed the security of Hong Kong at the time of the gigantic pro-democracy demonstrations of 2019, overseeing the repression of the protest as well as the severe political takeover that followed.
This earned him to appear on a list of Chinese and Hong Kong personalities sanctioned by the United States.
But it also allowed him to win the trust of Beijing, which has often suspected Hong Kong elites of disloyalty or incompetence.
"
John Lee is the one the central government knows best, because he has had constant contact and interaction with mainland China,
" businessman Michael Tien, a pro-Beijing member of the government, told AFP. Hong Kong Legislative Council.
He will begin his five-year term on July 1, the 25th anniversary of the UK's return of Hong Kong to China.
"
Passed the test
"
“
He is the man who passed the test
,” Lai Tung-kwok, John Lee’s predecessor as head of Hong Kong security, told AFP.
The arrival of John Lee marks a break with the four chief executives who have preceded him since the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, all from the business world or administration.
John Lee, a Catholic educated by the Jesuits, grew up in the popular district of Sham Shui Po. Promised to study engineering, he gave it up to join the police.
He later told a pro-China newspaper that he made the choice out of vocation, after being bullied and beaten by thugs as a child.
Married with two sons, the man is discreet about his family.
In particular, he refused to say whether she still had British nationality, which he himself renounced when he entered the government.
He promised to make “
national security
” one of his priorities, auguring the continuation of the campaign of repression of dissent started by his predecessor Carrie Lam.
But it is in the field of the economy that he is expected at the turn by the business circles of the world's third largest financial center, which has practically cut itself off from the world since the start of the pandemic.
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