As Hong Kong Chooses Its Next Leader, China Still Pulls the Stringsbr By ALAN WONGMARCH 23, 2017br HONG KONG — For the fifth time in the two decades since this former British colony’s return to Chinese rule, Hong Kong’s next chief executivebr will be selected on Sunday by a committee stacked with supporters of the Chinese government rather than by a free election.br Hong Kong said that There’s absolutely no regret.br Ms. Lam is loyal to the Chinese Communist Party "but more skillful" politically than Leung Chun-ying, the deeply unpopular incumbent chief executive,br said Chan Kin-man, an associate professor of sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who helped organize the 2014 protests.br Nathan Law said that The proposal would have given the election false legitimacy, and the chief executive a false mandate,br Hong Kong news outlets reported that Beijing conveyed its backing for Ms. Lam to dozens of Hong Kong electors in February when Zhang Dejiang, the chairman of China’s Parliamentbr and the head of a group overseeing Hong Kong affairs, met with the electors in the neighboring mainland city of Shenzhen.br Mr. Law, the student protester who went on to become the youngest legislator in Hong Kong history, began his speech by sayingbr that he would never be loyal to a "regime that murders its own people," presumably referring to China.br As paradoxical as it may sound, the pro-democracy activists insist they were right to oppose Beijing’s offer to allow for a direct popular votebr for the chief executive, Hong Kong’s top official, saying it would have been a sham anyway, with a pool of candidates approved by Beijing.