Hong Kong’s new leader has been congratulated by Western multinationals

Western corporations and local tycoons congratulated John Lee on his election as Hong Kong’s next leader on Monday, following a rubber-stamp selection process criticised by opponents as anti-democratic.

Lee, 64, a former security director who supervised the crackdown on Hong Kong’s democratic movement, was sworn in as the next leader of the commercial centre on Sunday by a tiny committee of Beijing loyalists in a near-unanimous vote.

He was the only contender in the Beijing-backed election to replace outgoing leader Carrie Lam at a time when Hong Kong is being reshaped in China’s authoritarian image.

On Monday, Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po, two publications that report to the agency that sets Beijing’s Hong Kong policy, were loaded with advertisements hailing Lee’s pick.

The vast majority came from Chinese and Hong Kong enterprises, as well as community groups.

City multinationals displaying advertisements included the “Big Four” accounting firms of KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC, as well as city airline Cathay Pacific and conglomerates Swire and Jardine Matheson.

Messages were also sent by Hong Kong’s family-dominated property conglomerates, such as Sun Hung Kai and Henderson Land Development.

Western enterprises in Hong Kong have found themselves in an increasingly perilous situation, particularly as geopolitical tensions with China have escalated.

Many people in Western markets have adopted progressive political issues such as the anti-racism Black Lives Matter movement, gender equality, and eliminating labour abuses from supply chains.

However, they normally avoid criticising China’s policy in hotspots such as Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan.

Some businesses, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, Swire, and Jardine Matheson, have publicly endorsed Beijing’s national security measures, which were enforced on Hong Kong during the 2019 democracy demonstrations to quell opposition.

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