Sunday 10 April 2022

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s PragmaticMan!

Faceless as a bureaucrat, faceless today 
“PragmaticMan”! John Lee. Hong Kong’s new leader. Who just wants to get things done. Question is, what? More housing? Or more control? Given he was point man, as head cop, of crackdowns on 2019 riots and implementing the National Security law:

Lee has a history of defending, promoting and advancing Hong Kong’s most controversial laws and appears set to further erode civil society, independent media and the scant remains of the opposition. Lee also is an official under U.S. sanctions, and his candidacy shows Beijing shrugging at outside criticism. “Image-wise … it doesn’t care,” said Ho-fung Hung, an expert on Hong Kong politics and a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University. [At WaPo]