Asia

Professional-Beijing committee picks John Lee as Hong Kong’s subsequent chief

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Hong Kong's leader-in-waiting, John Lee, was endorsed for the town's high job on Sunday by a committee stacked with pro-Beijing loyalists, because the monetary hub makes an attempt to relaunch itself after a number of years of political upheaval.

Lee, the only candidate, obtained the votes of 1,416 members of a pro-Beijing election committee on Sunday morning, granting him the bulk required to anoint him as Hong Kong's subsequent chief. Eight voted to "not support" him.

Few of the town's 7.4 million individuals have any say in selecting their chief, regardless of China's guarantees to someday grant full democracy to the previous British colony, which returned to Chinese language rule in 1997.

Safety was tight across the venue, with police stopping a small group of protesters from approaching.

"We believe we represent many Hong Kong people in expressing opposition to this China-style, single-candidate election," stated Chan Po-ying, a protester with the League of Social Democrats, holding up a banner demanding full democracy.

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Lee, a former Hong Kong secretary for safety, has forcefully carried out China's harsher regime beneath a nationwide safety legislation that has been used to arrest scores of democrats, disband civil society teams and shutter liberal media shops, corresponding to Apple Each day and Stand Information.

He has pledged to relaunch Hong Kong as a world metropolis and bolster its competitiveness, amid considerations amongst some Western governments, together with america, that freedoms and the rule of legislation have been undermined by the safety laws that was imposed by Beijing in 2020.

Chinese language authorities say the legislation is important to revive stability after protracted pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Some critics say Lee's makes an attempt to relaunch Hong Kong internationally may very well be affected by sanctions imposed on him by america in 2020 over what Washington stated was his function in "being involved in coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning individuals" beneath the safety legislation.

YouTube proprietor Alphabet Inc has stated it took down the Lee marketing campaign's YouTube account to adjust to U.S. sanction legal guidelines.

Lee, who says enacting extra nationwide safety legal guidelines for Hong Kong will probably be a precedence, has typically stated Hong Kong is a law-abiding society and that everybody should act in accordance with the legislation.

Amongst his different priorities, Lee has stated he’ll restructure the federal government to bolster policy-making and attempt to increase housing provide in one of many world's most costly housing markets.

(REUTERS)

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