Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam announced Monday that she will step down in June, ending a divisive term that saw democracy protests squashed and strict pandemic curbs plunge the business hub into international isolation.

Ending months of speculation, Lam confirmed she would not seek a second term when a committee made up of the city's political elite chooses a new leader next month.

"I will complete my five-year term as chief executive on June 30, and officially conclude my 42-year career in government," Lam told reporters.

She said China's leaders "understood and respected" her choice not to seek another term and that she wanted to spend more time with her family.

The 64-year-old had dodged questions for months over her future but revealed Monday she had informed Beijing of her plans to quit more than a year ago.

A career bureaucrat, Lam became Hong Kong's first woman leader in 2017 but she is on track to leave office with record-low approval ratings.

Kenneth Chan, a political scientist at Baptist University, said Hong Kong leaders have always suffered from a "chronic legitimacy crisis" because they are not popularly elected.

But Lam had lost support across the political spectrum.

"Not merely among the pro-democracy citizens but also increasingly among the pro-Beijing camp as she has done such a terrible job with the pandemic," Chan told AFP.

- Security tsar next leader? -

Hong Kongers and businesses based in the finance hub have little clarity on who will be the next leader at a time when Beijing is increasingly calling the shots directly.

The chief executive position is selected by a 1,500-strong pro-Beijing committee, the equivalent of 0.02 percent of the city's 7.4 million population.

Lam's successor will be chosen on May 8 but so far no one with a realistic prospect has publicly thrown their hat into the ring.

Hong Kong's number-two official, John Lee, who has a background in the security services, has been tipped by local press as the most likely contender.

Another potential candidate is finance chief Paul Chan.

The new leader will take office on July 1, the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover by Britain to China.

Supporters saw Lam as a staunch Beijing loyalist who steered the city through huge democracy protests and a debilitating pandemic.

Starry Lee, who leads Hong Kong's largest pro-Beijing party, described Lam on Monday as a "hard-working" official.

"Her merit... should be left to history to judge," she said.

Critics, including many Western powers, viewed Lam as someone who oversaw the collapse of Hong Kong's political freedoms and its reputation as a stable regional business hub.

Exiled activist and former legislator Nathan Law told AFP that Lam turned Hong Kong into an "authoritarian police state", calling her five-year term a "complete mess and disaster for Hong Kong, most remarkably on her crackdown on protests and absurd Covid policy".

The Hong Kong Democracy Council, a US-based group made up of opposition figures who have fled the city, described Lam's administration as "disastrous".

"(Lam) will just be replaced by another Chinese Communist Party puppet," the group wrote on Twitter. "As ever, Hong Kongers want democracy."

- Protests and pandemic -

After huge and sometimes violent protests swept Hong Kong in 2019 Beijing responded with a crackdown that has remoulded the once-outspoken city into a mirror of the authoritarian mainland.

Lam was sanctioned by the United States because of her support for the crackdown, which has seen most of the city's prominent democracy supporters arrested, jailed or flee overseas.

Her administration also hewed to China's zero-Covid model, implementing some of the world's toughest anti-coronavirus measures and exasperating international businesses.

The largely closed borders and strict quarantine rules kept infections at bay for some two years at the expense of Hong Kong being cut off internationally.

But the strategy collapsed when the highly transmissible Omicron variant broke through earlier this year, leaving Hong Kong with one of the developed world's highest fatality rates.

Hong Kongers have been leaving the city over the last two years at a rate not seen since the period before the handover.

Thousands of foreign residents have also departed, especially after the Omicron outbreak arrived and it became clear the city would remain cut off.

While a return of protests is unlikely in the current draconian political climate, Lam's successor will need to reboot business confidence and tackle perennial Hong Kong problems such as a dismal shortage of housing and sky-high rents.

But Lam predicted on Monday that whoever replaces her will have an easier ride.

"Compared to this term of government, the next government will be seeing a more stable political environment," she told reporters.

Carrie Lam: Hong Kong leader who ushered in era of Beijing's supremacy
Hong Kong (AFP) April 4, 2022 - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam vowed to heal divisions when she took office, but instead spearheaded Beijing's campaign to dismantle a pro-democracy uprising in the Chinese business hub.

The most controversial and divisive chief executive since Hong Kong's 1997 handover by Britain to China, Lam announced on Monday she would not seek a second term.

A career bureaucrat, she became Hong Kong's first woman leader in 2017 after being chosen by the small pro-Beijing committee that fills the position.

"My priority will be to heal the divide," she said in her victory speech, acknowledging the rising calls from Hong Kongers for democracy and frustration over how their city was being run.

She also vowed to resign if she ever lost "mainstream opinion".

Five years on she leaves office with record-low approval ratings, and the city's 7.4 million residents have even less of a say in who leads them.

- 'Unforgivable havoc' -

Born into a low-income family, Lam excelled at her Catholic school and later attended Cambridge University.

She began her career in the colonial civil service and headed the social welfare department after the handover, earning a reputation for being a workaholic.

During her predecessor's tenure, which saw student-led democracy protests in 2014, Lam was the government's number-two leader.

The first two years of her own term in office were comparatively calm. But Hong Kong exploded in 2019 when Lam tried to fast-track a bill that would have enabled extraditions to mainland China's party-controlled courts.

A huge backlash snowballed into months of massive, and at times violent, democracy protests.

Midway through the unrest Lam was recorded privately telling a group of business figures that she had caused "unforgivable havoc".

But she also said her hands were tied because she "served two masters": Hong Kongers and Beijing.

"She could have decisively reversed, retreated or revoked. Yet she missed the chance and when she decided to give up, it was too late," senior Beijing adviser Lau Siu-kai told AFP in January.

"None of Hong Kong's chief executives had high popularity but none of her predecessors faced anything as politically dangerous as she did," he added.

- 'Patriots only' changes -

The protests were stamped out when Beijing imposed a national security law that criminalised much dissent.

China also introduced "patriots only" election rules which meant anyone standing for office must be vetted for their political loyalty.

Around 170 activists, opposition politicians, academics and journalists have been arrested under the security law.

Scores of civil society groups and government-critical local news outlets have been shuttered.

Lam and Beijing argued these changes returned stability to Hong Kong.

Critics, including many Western powers, say the shift tore up Beijing's "one country, two systems" promise that Hong Kong could maintain key freedoms.

Lam, who once studied in the United States under the Fulbright scholarship programme, found herself sanctioned by Washington and joked she had to keep cash at home as a result.

"In the past four years, except for fulfilling Beijing's demands, Lam failed to win Hong Kong people's recognition in her other works," veteran commentator Johnny Lau told AFP in a recent interview.

"Many policies rolled out by her government -- even some that really benefit the general public -- are resented and rejected."

- Preventable tragedy -

The last two years of Lam's time in office were marked by a coronavirus pandemic response that left Hong Kong both internationally cut off and suffering one of the highest death rates in the world.

In lockstep with China, the city maintained some of the world's toughest pandemic restrictions.

But the zero-Covid strategy collapsed when the highly transmissible Omicron variant broke through in December 2021.

The vast majority of the nearly 8,000 deaths were elderly people who were not vaccinated, despite Hong Kong obtaining ample supplies.

As she announced her retirement on Monday, Lam said it was "not the right time" to evaluate her legacy.

Back in December, she admitted she had not succeeded in uniting Hong Kongers, but argued the imposition of stability was something to be proud of.

"My greatest consolation is that Hong Kong has finally moved past the winds and waves," she said.

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