Lam’s announcement came as media outlets reported that Secretary-General John Lee, Hong Kong’s second-highest-ranking official, was set to step down to replace Lam in May and become the next city leader to rule. from China. “There is only one issue and that is the family. I have told everyone in the past that family is my first priority in terms of my interest. “They think it’s time for me to go home,” Lam told a news conference on Monday. Lam, born in Hong Kong in 1957 and a lifelong civil servant who describes herself as a devout Catholic, took office in 2017 with a commitment to unite a city that was increasingly outraged by Beijing’s tight grip. Two years later, millions took to the streets in sometimes violent anti-government protests that eventually led Beijing to enact a sweeping national security law in June 2020, giving it more power than ever to shape life in Hong Kong. City leaders are elected by a small electoral commission stacked with Beijing loyalists, so whoever becomes the next leader of the former British colony will do so with Beijing’s tacit approval. Lee, a 64-year-old security official during the protracted and often violent pro-democracy protests in 2019, was promoted in 2021 in a move that some analysts said signaled Beijing’s security-related priorities for the city rather than finance or economics. Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Leadership elections have been postponed since March 27 to give the government time to deal with a Covid outbreak that has infected more than one million of the 7.4 million people in the former British colony. Ever since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it has had four executives, all of whom have struggled to balance the democratic aspirations of some people with the vision of China’s Communist Party leaders.
