Sin Kwok Lam's announcement on 19 January 2022 of his bid for Hong Kong's sixth chief executive can be seen as the beginning of his campaign for the sixth chief executive. However, it should be noted that from the election of the third chief executive to today, there have been two ways to run for election - one is private and the other is official.
There is only one official path in the election of the first chief executive – the central government dominates the whole process. In October 1996, nominations were accepted and a total of 31 people applied for the first chief executive. In November, the Chairman's Committee of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the National People's Congress deliberated on 31 people and identified 8 people. On 15 November, the First Meeting of the Chief Executive Selection Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) was held and three candidates were selected from 8 candidates. On 11 December, the third plenary session of the Selection Committee voted to elect Tung Chee-hwa as Hong Kong's first Chief Executive. On December 16, Tung Chee-hwa was appointed by the State Council.
The reason why the first chief executive was elected more than half a year earlier was to consider that there is a lot of work to be done in Hong Kong's return to the motherland, and the first chief executive must make preparations early.
Tung Chee-hwa was the only candidate for the second chief executive and was automatically elected. The reason why he announced his bid for re-election more than four months before the voting day was to stabilize the overall situation at that time. On December 13, 2001, Fok Ying Tung, then vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, attended the conference of Mr. Tung's election project, and after taking the stage, he shouted "I stand up for Dong", reflecting the strength of Hong Kong society against Tung Chee-hwa's re-election at that time.
Beginning with the third term in 2007, anti-China and chaotic Hong Kong political forces have won the number of seats necessary for the election of candidates in the Chief Executive Election Committee, so that the third, fourth and fifth chief executives have a representative of anti-China and chaotic Hong Kong political groups. In other words, from the third to the fifth term, there are two paths to the election of the chief executive. One is still led by the central authorities, and the other is grasped by the anti-China and chaotic Hong Kong political forces. The contest between the two sides is manifested not only in the confrontation between the candidates for chief executive, but also in the difference in the timing of the campaign and the way of campaigning. The anti-China and chaotic Hong Kong political forces interfered with the central government's deployment and deliberately set up another set of methods, which is the main reason why the election for the third to fifth chief executives started earlier than the current sixth term.
At present, there are still two paths for the election of the sixth chief executive, the central government and the non-governmental sector, of course, the non-governmental path is no longer controlled by the anti-China and chaotic Hong Kong political forces, but by patriotic and Hong Kong-loving people such as Sin Guolin who volunteer to explore.
This folk path can appear, but not for long. The Basic Law stipulates that the Chief Executive shall be appointed by the Central Committee and shall be responsible to the Central Committee. Only candidates produced under the leadership of the central government can be elected and appointed by the central government. This is the reason why several people who are regarded as "hot" by Hong Kong public opinion have not said a word so far, and it is also the reason why the current chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has not decided to move a chess game.