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The architect of the repression of the 2019 demonstrations must be appointed this Sunday by a committee of “Chinese patriots” as the new chief executive, replacing the lackluster Carrie Lam.
It would be comical if the consequences were not tragic for freedom and justice in Hong Kong. This Sunday, John Lee, the only candidate selected for his “patriotism” by a powerful committee he himself constituted, will be appointed chief executive of the special administrative region by 1,463 “delegates” chosen for their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party – the others having been disqualified, imprisoned or prevented from voting. A masquerade that he qualifies “open, fair and honest elections”, for which he complains of having had to “Work hard”. Stating that he is not “not easy” to appear in a race where there is no opponent.
John Lee, 64, from his Chinese name Lee Ka Chiu John, is nicknamed Pikachu by Hong Kongers, “because like the Pokemon figurine, it loses its temper and attacks everyone”, explain to Release a militant. Since the return of the former British colony to China in 1997, he is the first chief executive not to come from the business world or the administration. Long a simple policeman, of Catholic religion, educated by the Jesuits and a graduate of an Australian university, he entered local government in 2012.
In 2019, up to 2 million people in a territory of 7.5 million people peacefully demanded that the semi-autonomy of the archipelago to which Beijing had committed in the name of the principle “one country, two systems” is …