https://apnews.com/article/carrie-lam-china-beijing-hong-kong-7079660ad351960a687786a176dfa9c0
This article covers a potential candidate for the chief executive election. John Lee is a pro Beijing candidate that has served upwards of 40 years as a “servant of” Hong Kong, most recently he was the Chief security for administration. Lee has expressed on numerous occasions his support for the “central people’s government” and thus is the only candidate that is backed by Beijing. Lee seeks to bring about many of the policy changes that are proposed by the central government, mainly ones that support the communist system. This is evident by the actions taken by Lee during his time as chief security of administration. Lee squashed democratic movements labeling them as harmful or radicalist as well as pushing for legislation that undermines the freedoms granted to Hong Kong citizens during the handover from Britain to China in 1997. A criticism levied against Lee by media pundits is his lack of legislative experience, while Lee has served 40 years it has mostly been as a police or security officer. However Lee’s ties to the police force and national security make him the perfect candidate for Beijing to back. This is because China will and has already used the excuse of national security to violate the terms of the agreement made in 1997. For example China deemed the protest in Hong Kong years ago to be matters of national security and sent in the military police to quell the violence. Lee sat on a panel of other committee members who planned how the military police were going to stop the protest. This further reinforces the idea that Lee is the ideal choice for Beijing to back due to his willingness to allow personal freedoms of the citizens of Hong Kong to be violated for the sake of “national security”. However, despite outcry by democratic leaning individuals Lee is likely to win the election as of the 1,500 people on the election committee for Hong Kong, well over half are supporters of Beijing.