New Hong Kong Leader ‘Elected’

Much to the public's discontent, an elite committee of mostly Beijing loyalists in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong has picked a former government cabinet member as the city’s next leader. Leung Chun-ying was declared the next chief executive after securing 689 votes from the 1,200-strong committee of business leaders and politicians. Former government chief secretary Henry Tang, who was Beijing’s choice until a string of gaffes and scandals, received 285 votes. But hundreds of thousands of democracy supporters voted in a mock election to show their disapproval of the selection process—55 percent of the 222,990 votes were blank.