Can Hong Kong’s next leader satisfy her masters and the public?

IN THREE months, celebrations will take place at Hong Kong’s harbour-front convention centre to mark the 20th anniversary of the territory’s momentous return from Britain to China. The rumour is that President Xi Jinping himself will attend. What was striking about the handover ceremony on July 1st 1997 was that Hong Kong’s people were not represented. They were mere bystanders—or else helping with the catering. From the start, Hong Kongers were symbolically put in their place. At the convention centre, the new flag chosen for them was raised on a lower pole than that of the bigger flag of the People’s Republic of China. Both flags snapped rigidly to attention in a manufactured breeze.

The flags will fly again at the anniversary celebrations, and Hong Kong people will get a further reminder of their place when the territory’s next leader is sworn in, promising to ai guo, ai gang—love the motherland and love Hong Kong (in that order, and in Mandarin—not the local Cantonese). Carrie Lam was the resounding victor among three candidates for the post of chief executive in an election on March 26th, with two-thirds of the votes. Yet out of a population of 7.3m, the only ones with a vote were the fewer than 1,200 members of a committee stacked with supporters of the Communist Party in Beijing.