{"id":1468792,"date":"2022-05-09T11:59:35","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T15:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1468792"},"modified":"2022-05-09T11:59:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T15:59:39","slug":"hong-kongs-next-leader-pledged-to-end-the-ideology-of-hong-kong-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hong-kongs-next-leader-pledged-to-end-the-ideology-of-hong-kong-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s Next Leader Pledged To End \u2018The Ideology Of Hong Kong Independence\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhong-kongs-next-leader-pledged-to-end-the-ideology-of-hong-kong-independence%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1468792&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/05\/Hong-Kong.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>A pro-Beijing former security chief has been chosen as Hong Kong\u2019s next leader prompting concerns about the future of civil liberties on the island.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>John Lee, who led the crackdown on pro-democracy activists back in 2019, was elected through a closed voting process which the New York Times described as a \u201crubber-stamp election.\u201d He was the only candidate on the ballot and his selection is seen as another move for the Chinese Communist Party to assert its control over the jurisdiction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI look forward to all of us starting a new chapter together, building a Hong Kong that is caring, open and vibrant, and a Hong Kong that is full of opportunities and harmony,\u201d Lee <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/voting-rights-elections-beijing-hong-kong-f136ce684eaafab980800337dd9ef4c2\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> after he had been declared the winner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Lee was chosen by a committee of 1,500 people who were subject to screening from the mainland Chinese government. He earned 99% of the committee\u2019s vote and will take over from outgoing leader Carrie Lam.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The transfer of power comes as dissenting political voices are eliminated from Hong Kong politics, and only \u201cpatriots\u201d loyal to the central government are now eligible to hold office, according to the Associated Press.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Joseph Borrel, the European Union\u2019s foreign policy head, stated that Lee\u2019s victory \u201cviolates democratic principles and political pluralism in Hong Kong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Lee <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-61267490\"><span>supported<\/span><\/a><span> Hong Kong\u2019s controversial extradition bill in 2019 which opponents said would give China the ability to target government critics and spurred widespread protests on the island. Lee was sanctioned by the U.S. for a sometimes forceful response to protesters while he said he was working \u201cto safeguard security.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The former Hong Kong security chief has also pledged to purge \u201cthe ideology of Hong Kong independence, violence and extremism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cChoosing [Lee] signals that the Chinese Communist Party is not confident about security in Hong Kong. It also lets us know that the central government continues to distrust the Hong Kong government and people,\u201d John Burns noted in a column for the Hong Kong Free Press.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Other critics have pointed to fewer \u201cchecks and balances\u201d in the Hong Kong government and decreasing political liberties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIn the legislature and the election committee, there is almost no political opposition and the political spectrum is concentrated towards the pro-establishment camp,\u201d said\u00a0Ivan Choy, a lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>One pro-democracy group, the League of Social Democrats, protested at the polls expressing concern over the future of freedom in Hong Kong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis is what John Lee\u2019s new chapter looks like, a shrinking of our civil liberties,\u201d protester Vanessa Chan said, according to the BBC. \u201cWe know this action will have no effect, but we don\u2019t want Hong Kong to be completely silent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pro-Beijing former security chief has been chosen as Hong Kong\u2019s next leader prompting concerns about the future of civil liberties on the island.\u00a0John Lee, who led the crackdown on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":1482113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}