Hong Kong on Friday postponed an election for a new leader until May to battle a raging COVID outbreak, but unlike previous years, there's still no front-runner for the job, adding to uncertainty about the city's future as Beijing imposes its rule.
The former British colony returned to China in 1997, since when there have been four chief executives, all of whom struggled to balance the democratic aspirations of some residents with the vision of China's Communist Party leaders.
"Suddenly there's a lot of shadow play," one senior Western diplomat said. "The protracted sense of uncertainty surrounding this election cannot be a good thing." Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Friday again skirted questions on whether she would seek another term and her office gave no immediate response to a Reuters request for comment.
"The Chinese government's rational choice would be to change horse and to appoint someone who's not been targeted by the sanctions, to start on a new page," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Hong Kong-based professor and China politics expert.
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