Final week, the person who led the crackdown stepped onto a stage to put out his imaginative and prescient for Hong Kong — this time not as town’s safety chief, however its subsequent chief.
“It actually alerts (authorities) are intensifying that heavy-handed method to Hong Kong, and placing the so-called nationwide safety as their coverage for governing town,” Regulation mentioned.
An increase years within the making
The forces behind Lee’s rise to town’s prime job might be traced again practically half a century.
Lee joined the Hong Kong police power as a 19-year-old recruit in 1977 as town — then a British colony — underwent an financial transformation into a contemporary monetary heart.
He rose by means of the ranks and was promoted to chief superintendent in 1997 — the identical yr Britain handed town to China in a pomp-filled ceremony watched all over the world.
Since that watershed yr, activists like Regulation say they’ve watched Hong Kong’s freedoms be squeezed ever tighter. All of the whereas, Lee continued gaining prominence, changing into deputy commissioner, the second-highest place within the police power, by 2010.
Simply two years after that, he joined town’s Safety Bureau as under-secretary. To some, the appointment of a high-ranking police officer to a key authorities workplace was a press release of intent.
“We have been already actually nervous about that, as a result of that basically signaled a change in Hong Kong’s coverage, altering it in a seemingly extra suppressive method,” Regulation mentioned.
By 2016, when Regulation was elected into the legislature, Lee “was already notoriously troublesome to cope with” and appeared hostile to any journalists or opposition lawmakers who raised questions or challenges, Regulation mentioned.
Lee’s supporters have disputed this characterization, sustaining his time within the police power helped put together him for a public workplace.
At a short political rally on Friday, Lee, whose slogan is “We and us — a brand new chapter collectively,” pressured the significance of neighborhood and promised to “make Hong Kong a spot of hope” as soon as appointed.
CNN has reached out to Lee’s marketing campaign crew for remark.
The 2019 protests
Lee’s rise continued when he was appointed safety chief in 2017 — the “starting of a altering pattern,” mentioned Joseph Cheng, a retired Hong Kong educational and pro-democracy activist now based mostly in New Zealand.
“Beijing appears to be emphasizing loyalty extra, or the potential of implementing a tough line — due to this fact, senior officers from the disciplinary forces seem to occupy a extra advantageous place,” Cheng mentioned.
It was below Lee’s tenure that the Safety Bureau launched the controversial extradition invoice that led to the protests in 2019.
Critics anxious Beijing might use the invoice to prosecute Hong Kong residents for political causes below China’s opaque authorized system.
With the Hong Kong authorities standing agency on the invoice regardless of public objections, the protests shortly expanded right into a broader pro-democracy, anti-government motion. Fears have been underpinned by widespread anxiousness about Beijing’s rising affect and the perceived erosion of Hong Kong’s cherished semi-autonomous standing, which allowed it the freedoms of press, speech and meeting that had lengthy been central to its worldwide attraction.
Withdrawing the invoice was simply one in all 5 in style calls for by protesters; others included common suffrage and accountability from police, who confronted accusations of brutality they’ve denied.
On the top of the disaster, protesters and police clashed practically each week, with demonstrators lobbing bricks and Molotov cocktails and officers responding with tear fuel, rubber bullets, and at occasions reside ammunition. The violence polarized town, cementing the breakdown in belief between the general public and the authorities.
Lee has repeatedly defended the power’s actions, insisting critics must “take into consideration the (previous occasions), in any other case it won’t be honest.”
“I’m pleased with the Hong Kong police power. They continue to be Asia’s most interesting … In comparison with what they do with regulation enforcement businesses abroad, I feel they’ve exercised restraint. They’ve minimized the hurt and accidents to everyone,” he mentioned in September 2019.
Lengthy arm of the nationwide safety regulation
Lee gained native prominence for his position in combating the protests — however his implementation of the nationwide safety regulation cemented his status as a hardline enforcer and Beijing loyalist.
The safety regulation was promulgated by Beijing in June 2020, throughout a lull within the protests introduced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Described by the Hong Kong authorities on the time as “an important step to ending chaos,” the regulation criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with overseas forces — and permits for max sentences of life imprisonment.
Every week after the raid, Lee was promoted to chief secretary — the second-highest place in authorities — and the primary time a safety official has taken the position.
Consultants say Lee’s suppression of the protests and assist for nationwide safety is exactly why he now finds himself town’s subsequent chief.
“(That is) the reward for loyalty,” mentioned Cheng, the activist and former educational.
Supporters of the safety regulation insist it has helped set up stability within the wake of the violence and political unrest of 2019. “Individuals’s lives and property are protected, and so they can as soon as once more take pleasure in their reputable rights and freedoms,” a authorities spokesperson mentioned in April in response to a query on the regulation.
However Lee’s affiliation with the regulation has been met with growing scrutiny overseas. He was amongst practically a dozen individuals sanctioned by the US in 2020 for undermining town’s autonomy and democratic processes — which Lee has scoffed at, not too long ago calling the sanctions “unreasonable” and “acts of bullying.”
The nationwide safety regulation “has restored peace,” Lee instructed the United Nations Human Rights Council in March, decrying the 2019 protests as “evil” and lauding “the improved electoral system.”
“No nation has a monopoly on the mannequin of democracy,” he added.
What this implies for Hong Kong
Lee has already made clear the form of authorities he’ll form: one with more and more shut ties to mainland China.
On the unveiling of his coverage manifesto on April 29, Lee emphasised the necessity to combine Hong Kong with different economically necessary Chinese language cities. There was no English translation supplied, regardless of English being one in all Hong Kong’s two official languages — in placing distinction to most authorities occasions thus far.
He additionally vowed to bolster safety laws and introduce “nationwide id” training. Each proposals have lengthy been controversial, with earlier makes an attempt to introduce laws foiled by protests and pushback — a lot to Beijing’s frustration.
Regardless of this, the outgoing Chief Government Lam continues to say that Hong Kong’s media sphere is “as vibrant as ever,” although she warned final week that “media organizations are usually not above the regulation … together with the nationwide safety regulation.”
Lee may also must navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, with persistence fraying amongst many in Hong Kong after greater than two years of stringent restrictions in accordance with China’s unbending zero-Covid coverage.
At his coverage manifesto occasion, Lee asserted that “sooner or later (the virus) might be below management,” and that he would design measures to permit companies to function.
Cheng, the pro-democracy activist who moved to New Zealand, sees the long run as being “the continuation of the exhausting line of the previous two years.”
“There is no such thing as a toleration of political opposition … there might be little or no tolerance of an impartial media, and little or no tolerance for the operation of civil society organizations,” Cheng mentioned.
When requested by CNN about accusations of diminished political freedoms, a authorities spokesperson responded that the rights of Hong Kong residents are “protected in accordance with the regulation” — however that “many freedoms and rights are usually not absolute, and might be restricted for causes together with safety of nationwide safety and public security.”
Disillusionment and emigration
Amongst former activists and pro-democracy supporters, there is a sense of despair as Lee prepares to take workplace.
“It is undoubtedly not, by any means or any parameters, a democratic (course of),” mentioned Regulation, the previous lawmaker. “It is actually simply an appointment. I do not actually name it an election.”
Lee has dodged questions on whether or not he was handpicked by the central Chinese language authorities, saying in April he welcomed anyone else who wished to run.
After the turmoil of the previous three years, even a brand new administration is unlikely to bridge the damaged relationship between the federal government and its individuals, mentioned John Burns, emeritus professor on the College of Hong Kong.
“There’s a big proportion of the inhabitants that’s alienated and offended,” he mentioned, pointing to mass emigration as “proof of alienation … of a sick society.”
Whereas Hong Kong’s harsh Covid restrictions are serving to drive this exodus, Lee’s critics say that so too is the crackdown on civil liberties he enforced.
Requested about this on April 29, Lee brushed it off. He claimed Hong Kong had all the time seen excessive ranges of mobility, and that its proximity to the mainland market would proceed to draw companies.
“We’re an inclusive metropolis,” he instructed reporters. “Collectively, we begin a brand new chapter for Hong Kong.”