China installing former security chief as Hong Kong leader

KEN MORITSUGU
HONG KONG (AP) — China is installing a career security official as the new leader of Hong Kong in the culmination of a sweeping political transformation that has gutted any opposition in the Asian financial center and placed it ever more firmly under Beijing’s control. John Lee is the only candidate Sunday in what is an election in name only. Well over half of the 1,500-member Election Committee that selects the chief executive has already endorsed him and he needs only a simple majority to win. Lee will replace Carrie Lam, whose 5-year term was marked by Hong Kong’s most tumultuous period since the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.