Hong Kong has a new leader following the election of former security chief John Lee to the position of Chief Executive.
Mr Lee — who ran unopposed — will replace Carrie Lam, who has led the financial hub during several years of political upheaval.
With a reputation of being hardline pro-Beijing, he is expected to oversee the further integration of the special administrative region into the mainland.
Experts say Beijing’s endorsement of Mr Lee signals the central government is looking for someone reliable to ensure that its authority in Hong Kong is never questioned again.
Police officer turned politician
Mr Lee, 64, spent more than three decades of his civil service career in the police force before he was appointed undersecretary of Hong Kong's security bureau in 2012.
He was promoted to security minister in 2017 in Ms Lam's government.
He was a key figure in pushing for a proposed extradition bill in 2019 that would have sent Hong Kong suspects to mainland China, where courts operate under the ruling Communist Party.
But the bill sparked massive anti-government protests over fears that Beijing was encroaching on Hong Kong's autonomy, and soon morphed into calls for wider democratic rights, including universal suffrage.
The government backtracked, but under Mr Lee, police unleashed a heavy response that included the use of tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters as well as mass arrests.
Responding to allegations of police brutality and violence, Mr Lee was steadfast in the security forces' defence and said their "methods were relatively restrained".
The following year, in 2020, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong, with Mr Lee as its main facilitator and enforcer.
The law, which outlawed secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces in the city’s affairs, was used to clear streets of protesters, silence government opponents and crackdown on freewheeling media.
During the protests, Mr Lee compared activists to terrorists.
"Terrorism is growing in the city and activities which harm national security, such as 'Hong Kong independence', become more rampant," he said.
The same year, Mr Lee and other Chinese as well as Hong Kong officials including Ms Lam were sanctioned by the US "for being involved in coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning individuals under the authority of the National Security Law, as well as being involved in its development, adoption, or implementation".
Ms Lam appointed Mr Lee chief secretary in June last year, making him second-in-command in the Hong Kong administration.
'Like a machine executing orders'
Ted Hui, who was a member of Hong Kong's Legislative Council between 2016 and 2020 and now lives in exile in Adelaide, said Mr Lee was a relative unknown who only began to develop a public profile during the 2019 protests.
"He's quite a mystery to Hong Kongers," Mr Hui said.
"He's the type that seldom speaks. And when he speaks, he only reads from the script. Nothing more, nothing less."
Mr Hui said Mr Lee and his predecessor were quite different.
Even though Ms Lam was tightly controlled by Beijing, she had her own ideas and character, he said.
"When having a heated debate in the parliament, she would really argue," he said.
"She would use her own words and not words prescribed by Beijing.
"In comparison, John Lee is just a machine executing orders, without emotions."
Mr Hui said while Hong Kong was governed under the one country, two systems policy, now it was more like "one country, one system".
"Beijing wants a person that is not too smart, who has no personal ideas," he said.
But it's not just Beijing that supports Mr Lee — some pro-Beijing politicians and businessmen in Hong Kong also want him in power.
Only 'patriots' allowed to stand
Sunday's election was the first since the electoral system was changed last year to ensure only "patriots" were allowed to run for office.
Mr Lee received 1,416 election committee votes — eight voted to "not support" him — and will officially take over from Ms Lam on July 1.
Ahead of the election, Hong Kong media reports said Beijing officials wanted Mr Lee to be the only candidate, and would not give the green light to others to stand against him.
Beijing describes the system under which the chief executive is selected as "democracy with Hong Kong characteristics".
Joyce Nip, an associate professor in Chinese Media Studies at University of Sydney, said Beijing was keen to unite Hong Kong's pro-China factions now that the city's critical social organisations and political opposition had been dismantled.
"Being a civil servant, John Lee does not have a strong connection to any of the factions of the pro-China camp," she said.
"This neutrality puts him in a good position to do that task.
Beijing strengthens its hold
Mr Lee has pledged to relaunch Hong Kong as an international city and bolster its competitiveness.
He has also said he would tackle poverty and housing issues.
However, commentators expect him to make security the main priority.
He said in the lead up to the election that he would push to enact the Article 23 anti-subversion law — which would prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition or subversion against the central government — as soon as possible once elected.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets when the city government first proposed introducing the law in 2003 and it was shelved. Critics of the law said it posed a threat to basic rights.
Alfred Wu, associate professor at the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said that each of Hong Kong's six chief executives since the city was handed back to China in 1997 had operated with less and less autonomy.
"I don't think the new one will have very good autonomy in any sense," he said.
He said the era of Hong Kong being an international centre was gone, with Mr Lee's appointment another step towards the city's complete integration with mainland China.
"It's just becoming an ordinary Chinese city with an emphasis on top-down security concerns," he said.
Mr Hui said that Mr Lee's appointment removed any veneer of democracy or accountability from Hong Kong's government.
"I expect Hong Kong will pass even more draconian laws, Article 23 and other offences in national security areas, and also there will be strengthening of internet censorship and further attacks on local and foreign journalists in Hong Kong, under Article 23," he said.
"Hong Kong will not be governed under the rule of law anymore, but by the rule of force instead."
ABC/wires
