Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Monday that Chinese patriots are now firmly in charge of the city following the election of its new leader, who ran unopposed in a process controlled by Beijing.
Lam’s comments came a day after a carefully vetted election committee voted overwhelmingly to approve John Lee, a hard-line security chief who oversaw a crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement after massive protests turned violent in 2019.
The protests led to the imposition by Beijing of a sweeping National Security Law and the reorganization of the city’s legislature. Political opponents were subsequently jailed, dissenting voices silenced and the organized opposition quashed.