![handle is hein.crs/goveftt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional
A Research Service
informing the legist ive debate since 1914____________________
The 2022 Hong Kong Chief Executive Election
May 9, 2022
On May 8, 2022, the Hong Kong Election Committee (HKEC) elected John Lee Ka-chiu as the new chief
executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Lee was backed by 1,416 (96.9%)
of the Committee's 1,461 members. While not without precedent, Lee's unopposed candidacy raised
concerns among Hong Kong residents and foreign observers about the deterioration of Hong Kong's
democracy, as well as the increasingly direct influence wielded by the central government of the People's
Republic of China (PRC or China). In March 2021, China's National People's Congress (NPC)
implemented a series of changes to Hong Kong's electoral system. Some analysts assess these changes as
favoring pro-establishment candidates such as Lee. Lee's career in the HKSAR's security services,
including his tenure as head of the Security Bureau at the height of recent tensions between the Hong
Kong government and democracy proponents, suggest he is a Beijing loyalist who may do little to stop,
and may outright facilitate, the further erosion of civil liberties.
Lee's Background and Platform
Lee spent the majority of his professional career in the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) before being
appointed to the HKSAR's Security Bureau in 2012. Sources suggest Lee played a pivotal role in 2019 in
the HKSAR government's push for a controversial extradition bill that would have created a formal
extradition mechanism between Hong Kong and Mainland China for certain crimes. The bill, which the
HKSAR ultimately retracted, set off a wave of protests that was met with increasing brutality from the
HKPF. Following the imposition of the National Security Law (NSL) by the NPC on Hong Kong, Lee-
as a member of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the HKSAR, a select government
committee created by the NSL-faced criticism for his role in the law's implementation. (For more on the
National Security Law, see CRS Report R46473, China's National Security Law for Hong Kong: Issues
for Congress.) He served as chief secretary for administration, the HKSAR's second highest official, from
June 2021 until his resignation in April 2022 to run for chief executive.
In August 2020, the U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned Lee, along with 10 other individuals,
pursuant to then-President Donald Trump's Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization (E.O. 13936).
In October 2020, the Department of State identified Lee as materially contribut[ing] to the failure of the
Government of China to meet its obligations under the Joint Declaration or Basic Law, elaborating:
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
IN11930
CRS INSIGHT
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/goveftt0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most