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Who is John Lee? The former cop trusted by Beijing to lead Hong Kong
Lee, 64, is expected to be anointed Hong Kong's next chief executive by a small committee on Sunday, the culmination of a choreographed, Beijing-blessed race with no other candidates.
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This file photo taken on July 1, 2020 shows Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam (left) and Security Secretary John Lee (right) holding copies of the new national security law during a press conference at the government headquarters in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has emerged a more unequal city, its freedoms curtailed and international shine dulled after five years with Carrie Lam at the helm, analysts say, as her turbulent leadership draws to an end. (AFP/STR)
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s a former beat cop who rose to become Hong Kong's security chief, John Lee is the one person China's leaders trust to run the city as their loyal lieutenant, analysts and insiders say.
Lee, 64, is expected to be anointed Hong Kong's next chief executive by a small committee on Sunday, the culmination of a choreographed, Beijing-blessed race with no other candidates.
His elevation caps a remarkable rise for a man whose police career lifted him from a working-class family to the upper echelons of Hong Kong's political establishment.
It also places a security official in the city's top job for the first time, a man who played a key role in the suppression of huge democracy protests and Beijing's subsequent political crackdown.
Insiders say Lee's unwavering commitment to that role won China's confidence at a time when other Hong Kong elite were seen as insufficiently loyal or competent.
"John Lee is the one that the central government knows the best, because he was in constant contact and interaction with the mainland," pro-establishment lawmaker and prominent business figure Michael Tien told AFP.
Lai Tung-kwok, Hong Kong's security minister before Lee took the role, put it another way.
