Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s controversial leader who has presided over the global financial hub through unparalleled upheavals such as anti-government protests and COVID-19, announced on Monday that she will not seek re-election to a second five-year term.
Lam’s declaration came as media reported that Hong Kong’s second most senior official, Chief Secretary John Lee, was due to leave in order to run for Lam’s replacement as the Chinese-ruled city’s next leader in May.
‘There is just one factor to consider, and that is family. I’ve always said that my family is my top priority,’ Lam stated at a normal press conference.
‘They believe it is time for me to return home.’
She declined to speculate on potential replacements and stated that she had not decided on her future plans.
Lam, a lifelong civil servant who identifies herself as a devoted Catholic and was born in British-ruled Hong Kong in 1957, assumed office in 2017 with a commitment to unite a city becoming increasingly resentful of Beijing’s expanding grasp.
Millions of democracy supporters took to the streets two years later in often violent anti-government rallies. As a result of the upheaval, Beijing enacted a broad national security law in June 2020, giving it greater power than ever to affect life in Hong Kong.
At the height of the turmoil in 2019, an exasperated Lam stated that if she had the choice, she would resign, adding in remarks to a group of business people that the chief executive ‘had to serve two masters by constitution, that is the central people’s government and the people of Hong Kong.’
‘Political room for manoeuvring is extremely, extremely, extremely small,’ she added, according to an audio recording of her remarks acquired by Reuters.
Lam said on Monday that she had suggested to mainland authorities a government restructure that would include new policy agencies, but it would be up to the city’s next leader to decide whether to go ahead with the proposal.
City leaders are chosen by a small electoral commission comprised of Beijing loyalists, ensuring that whoever becomes the next leader of the former British colony does so with Beijing’s implicit permission.
Lee, 64, was a security official during the pro-democracy rallies in 2019, which were long and often violent, and was promoted in 2021, a move that some observers said signalled Beijing’s renewed focus on security rather than the economy.
Lee did not reply quickly to a request for comment.
Other candidates discussed in the media include the city’s financial secretary, Paul Chan, and former leader Leung Chun-ying. None has yet to make a bid public.
Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty from British rule in 1997, with the provision of broad freedoms, including an independent court and the right to public assembly, for at least 50 years.
In 2020, the US sanctioned both Lam and Lee, as well as other officials, claiming that they had undermined Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy from Beijing and curtailed political freedoms with the national security law, which punishes offences such as subversion and secession with up to life imprisonment.
Individual rights are not being lost, according to Chinese and Hong Kong officials, and the security law was necessary to reestablish the stability required for economic growth following the lengthy turmoil.
The leadership election was put back from March to May 8 to give the authorities more time to combat a COVID outbreak that has infected over a million of the city’s 7.4 million residents. Lam’s term will expire on June 30.
Since Hong Kong was reverted to Chinese administration, it has had four chief executives, all of whom have battled to reconcile the democratic and liberal ambitions of many citizens with the Communist Party’s vision of China.
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