Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says she won't seek second term

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says she won’t seek a second term.

The politician has overseen five tumultuous years as leader, with Hong Kong rocked by huge protests, a security crackdown and an overwhelming Covid-19 wave.

Her successor will be picked in May and the city’s security chief during the 2019 protests is among the possible choices.

Ms Lam said at a news conference Monday that she will end her 42 years in public service this June and spend more time with her family.

She presided over a period in which Beijing firmly established control over the former British colony that was returned to China in 1997.

Her popularity sharply declined over an extradition bill, the mass protests and a national security law she strongly supported that has quashed dissent.

Speculation had swirled for months about whether she would seek another term, but she said that her decision had been conveyed to the central government in Beijing last year and was met with “respect and understanding.”

“Less than two years into my chief executive term, because of the anti-extradition bill and because of interference from foreign forces and also the attack of Covid-19, I was under great pressure,” Ms Lam said.

“However the motivation for me to press on was the very staunch support behind me by the central authorities.”

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Ms Lam strongly supported the national security law initiated by Beijing and implemented by her government that was seen as eroding the “one country, two systems” framework that promised after the handover from Britain that city residents would retain freedoms not found in mainland China, such as a free press and freedom of expression.

The security law and other police and court actions in the years since have virtually erased the city's pro-democracy movement, with activists and the movement's supporters either arrested or jailed.

Others have fled into exile.