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| Since Hong Kong returned to Chinese control, Beijing has appointed either businesspeople or members of the bureaucratic elite to lead the city. John Lee, who was sworn in Friday as Hong Kong’s next chief executive, is the first former police officer to take the job since the handover. |
| His selection in a process tightly controlled by China sends a clear message. After the enactment of a tough security law and a sweeping crackdown on the political opposition, Beijing believes safeguarding China’s interests remains the top priority for Hong Kong’s leadership. |
| Mr. Lee, 64, joined the Hong Kong police after high school, saying a childhood encounter with street thugs taught him to value justice. He climbed the ranks, handling some of the city’s biggest criminal cases before he transferred in 2012 to the security bureau, which oversees the police. |
| Five years ago, he was named security secretary. In that role he crafted legislation that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, a bill that set off massive pro-democracy protests in 2019. After China imposed a national security law on the city in 2020 that effectively prohibited dissent, he oversaw its implementation. Last year, the police arrested dozens of pro-democracy activists and politicians and charged them with subversion under the new law. |
| Mr. Lee, who was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 along with several Hong Kong and mainland officials, has remained an outspoken defender of the security law. He told the United Nations Human Rights Council in March that it “restored peace and stability” and stopped the “violence, destruction and chaos” of the protests. |
| Mr. Lee rose to the No. 2 job in Hong Kong, chief secretary, just one year ago. While in that role he led a committee that vetted candidates for public office, part of a new system of electoral controls enacted by Beijing. That body, which is tasked with ensuring the loyalty of office holders, also approved members of the committee that picked Mr. Lee to run Hong Kong in May. |
| During his brief campaign Mr. Lee pledged to emphasize livelihood issues like access to housing and creating job opportunities for young people. But security remains paramount. He has said he intends to win passage of Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, a package of legislation against acts of secession, sedition, subversion and treason. A previous effort to enact the legislation was dropped after mass protests in 2003. The government hasn’t tried to pass it again since. |
| While many observers expected him to pick a deputy with experience in business and economics, he instead named Chan Kwok-ki, another law enforcement veteran, to replace him as chief secretary. Mr. Chan spent most of his career with the immigration department, rising to director of immigration before becoming the director of the chief executive’s office in 2017. He has also served as the secretary general of the powerful national security committee that was set up under the security law in 2020. |
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