Hong Kong’s former No. 2 official, Carrie Lam, was elected as the city’s chief executive, giving China its preferred choice to lead the fractious financial hub.
Lam, 59, won 67 percent of votes cast on Sunday by an electoral college of 1,194 businessmen, professionals and politicians that selects leaders for the former British colony, according to final results.
Her chief rival, ex-Financial Secretary John Tsang, 65, got 31 percent, despite greater popularity among the general public and support from the committee’s prodemocracy bloc.
A third candidate, retired judge Woo Kwok-hing, received 1.8 percent.
The result will make Lam, a career civil servant, the city’s first female leader when her five-year term begins on July 1. She became the favorite to win, after her unpopular former boss, outgoing Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, bowed out last December and Chinese officials pushed behind the scenes to rally support for a candidate seen as compliant to Beijing’s agenda.
Lam’s primary tasks will be healing divisions over Beijing’s perceived encroachment on Hong Kong’s affairs, and bolstering an economy vulnerable to China’s slowdown and US interest-rate increases. Lam’s pledge to ramp up growth through spending more and cutting taxes will be aided by a projected budget surplus of HK$92.8 billion ($11.9 billion) for the current fiscal year.
Lam’s popularity has suffered amid weeks of media reports about Chinese officials working to quash opposition to her on the loyalist-dominated election committee. She trailed Tsang 29.5 percent to 46.6 percent in a poll of 1,009 adults published on March 16 by the South China Morning Post newspaper.
“She is viewed—and she said so herself—as C.Y. Leung’s successor to continue his administration and policies,” said Jason Y. Ng, a lawyer who wrote Umbrellas in Bloom, a chronicle of the mass democracy protests in 2014. “She is too much of a known entity. There will be no honeymoon period at all.”
China promised to give Hong Kong a “ high degree of autonomy” before the UK relinquished control two decades ago. Lam’s inauguration ceremony will take place on the 20th anniversary of the handover, giving her an immediate test for handling a politically sensitive occasion.
President Xi Jinping may attend the event, which is accompanied by an annual prodemocracy march, in what would be his first visit to Hong Kong since taking power in 2012. The Post reported on March 6 that the commander in chief might also review a military parade while in town.
Lam has promised a more accommodating approach after the mass protests and legislative gridlock that marked Leung’s tenure. She told Bloomberg last month she would focus on boosting the economy rather than potentially decisive issues, like an election-reform proposal, that prompted student demonstrators to occupy swaths of the
city in 2014.
Lam, who had planned to retire this year, was raised in a walk-up apartment in the city’s Wan Chai district. While studying sociology at the University of Hong Kong, she showed an activist streak, supporting a group of Yau Ma Tei boat people during efforts to relocate them. Upon graduation, she joined the government.
She has held about 20 positions over 36 years, including a 2007-2012 stint as development secretary when she persuaded villagers to relocate to make way for new projects. As Leung’s top deputy, she was known for championing China’s policy goals without inspiring the same animosity from the opposition as her boss.
That reputation took a hit during a December trip to Beijing, when Lam—who was then mulling a run—announced plans to build a Hong Kong offshoot of China’s Palace Museum.
The surprise move prompted a backlash, with lawmakers accusing her of failing to consult the public about the project or her choice of architect.