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Lee, 64, a former safety chief who oversaw the crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy motion, was anointed the enterprise hub’s new chief on Sunday in a close to unanimous vote by a small committee of Beijing loyalists.
He was the only real candidate within the race to succeed outgoing chief Carrie Lam at a time when Hong Kong is being remoulded in China’s authoritarian picture.
Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po, two newspapers that reply to the workplace which units Beijing’s Hong Kong coverage, had been crammed with adverts on Monday from main firms and enterprise figures praising Lee’s choice.
The bulk had been from Chinese language and Hong Kong companies in addition to neighborhood organisations.
The “Massive 4” accountancy companies — KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC — had been amongst western multinationals inserting adverts, as had been metropolis service Cathay Pacific and conglomerates Swire and Jardine Matheson.
Messages had been additionally carried by Hong Kong’s household tycoon-dominated property giants, together with Solar Hung Kai and Henderson Land Growth.
Western companies have discovered themselves in an more and more precarious place in Hong Kong, particularly as geopolitical tensions have risen with China.
Many have embraced progressive political causes in western markets, such because the anti-racism Black Lives Matter motion, similar intercourse equality and ridding provide chains of labour abuses.
However they often avoid any criticism of China’s insurance policies in direction of hotspots like Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and Taiwan.
Some firms equivalent to HSBC, Commonplace Chartered, Swire and Jardine Matheson publicly backed Beijing’s nationwide safety legislation, which was imposed on Hong Kong after 2019’s democracy protests to curb dissent.
– Can Hong Kong reopen? – The elevation of Lee, who’s beneath US sanctions, locations a safety official in Hong Kong’s prime job for the primary time after a tumultuous few years for a metropolis battered by political unrest and economically debilitating pandemic controls.
Regardless of the town’s mini-constitution promising common suffrage, Hong Kong has by no means been a democracy, the supply of years of protests for the reason that 1997 handover to China.
After the 2019 rallies, Beijing responded with a crackdown and a brand new “patriots solely” political vetting system that eradicated the town’s as soon as outspoken political opposition.
Lee confronted no rivals and gained 99 p.c of the votes solid by the 1,461-strong committee that picks the town’s chief — roughly 0.02 p.c of the town’s inhabitants.
Beijing hailed the method as “an actual demonstration of democratic spirit”.
European Union’s overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell countered that the choice course of was a “violation of democratic ideas and political pluralism”.
Lee, a former police officer, has vowed strengthen Hong Kong’s nationwide safety and combine the town additional with the mainland.
He needs to reboot the town’s economic system and slowly reopen its pandemic sealed borders at a time when rivals have moved to residing with the coronavirus.
However it’s unclear how he can do this given China has doubled down on its strict zero-Covid technique.
On Monday morning, Lam met her successor Lee and each gave brief speeches stressing that they might put together for an orderly transition between their administrations.
Lee, who takes over on July 1, was Lam’s safety chief after which her deputy.
Lee stated his first port of name would China’s prime companies in Hong Kong — the Liaison Workplace, the nationwide safety committee, the overseas ministry’s workplace and the Individuals’s Liberation Military garrison.
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