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Hong Kong's divisive leader Leung Chun-ying says he will step down Hong Kong's divisive leader to step down amid political crisis
(about 2 hours later)
Hong Kong’s divisive leader, Leung Chun-ying, who has been vilified by critics as a puppet of Beijing, has said he will not run again for office after a term marked by anti-China protests and political divisions. Hong Kong’s divisive leader has announced that he will not seek a second term, amid a deepening political crisis in the former British colony.
Leung said he would step down at the end of his term in July for family reasons after speculation intensified in recent weeks over who would get the nod from Beijing for leadership elections in March. Leung Chun-ying cited family reasons for the decision to step down when his term ends in July 2017.
“The central authorities including the top leaders in the country have been very supportive of my work all these years,” Leung told reporters when asked the reasons for his departure. “I need to make a responsible choice between my family and society,” Hong Kong’s chief executive said at a press conference. “If I run, my family will suffer intolerable stress due to my electioneering … I must protect them.”
“I’ve already reported my decision to the central government and the central government has expressed their understanding.” Under his leadership, Hong Kong has been rocked by some of the most severe challenges in history to China’s authority over the semi-autonomous city, including the umbrella movement protests in 2014, during which roads were occupied for nearly three months by demonstrators opposed to the method of electing the chief executive.
Leung took office in 2012 as concerns were growing that Beijing was tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city and his opponents have criticised him as a hardline leader overseeing the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms. The failure of the protests to win any concessions from Leung and Beijing left the city starkly divided between pro-establishment and pro-democracy camps, and inspired an independence movement calling for it to break away from Beijing.
His term has been one of political crises in Hong Kong with massive pro-democracy rallies in 2014 bringing tens of thousands on to the streets calling for reform and for Leung to step down. China has expressed fury over the movement, which it claims is illegal and will damage Hong Kong’s prosperity.
The failure of the protests to win any concessions from Leung and Beijing left the city starkly divided between pro-establishment and pro-democracy camps and sparked an independence movement calling for the city to break entirely from Beijing. In recent months, Leung has taken the unprecedented step of filing lawsuits to successfully ban two popularly elected pro-independence politicians from taking their seats, and is seeking to bar four other pro-democracy MPs.
China has expressed its fury over the movement, which it says is illegal and will damage Hong Kong’s prosperity. Willy Lam, a politics professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: “The big picture hasn’t changed much, because at the end of the day, Beijing still calls the shots in Hong Kong, whoever is chief executive. But there’s a big sigh of relief because Hong Kong people hate him.
Last month, two democratically elected politicians who support a split from China were barred from taking up their seats after an intervention from Beijing. “He bent over backwards to please Beijing at the expense of the Hong Kong people.”
A group of more moderate pro-democracy politicians are facing a court case on Thursday brought by the government, which is also seeking to remove them from the legislature. Leung’s popularity has plummeted in recent years. His approval rating for the past three months has been about 38%, according to the Public Opinion Programme at the University of Hong Kong, the second-lowest of any chief executive in history.
Leung said he was stepping down out of “responsibility as a father and a husband” and that it was not to do with his performance as leader. His resignation has been a key demand of the pro-democracy camp for years and chants of “Leung Chun-ying, step down” permeate nearly every protest in the city. He is often called “the wolf”, a play on his last name, which sounds similar in Cantonese.
Reports in local media have said that Leung’s daughter, Leung Chai-yan, 25, has been in hospital for more than a month, although the reasons are unclear. Leung was elected in 2012 by a 1,193-member election committee, securing 689 votes to run the city of 7.3 million people. Early in his term, there were large-scale protests against a “patriotic education” curriculum, which was strongly supported by Chinese authorities, but eventually scrapped.
Leung said he did not want to give further details of his family situation. Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy politician, told the Guardian: “There will be euphoria for a while. But things could get even worse, as his replacement gets more popular support amid a false feeling that Beijing will actually heed the Hong Kong people’s demands.”
His daughter hit the headlines in 2015 after slapping her mother Regina Tong in front of revellers in Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong bar district after a Halloween party. She has also publicly criticised her her mother and in 2015 announced she was leaving home because of explosive rows with her parents. Nathan Law, one of the MPs Leung is trying to disqualify, warned that the outgoing leader would become more antagonistic towards the pro-democracy camp in the coming months and called on people to “remain vigilant” during the election for Leung’s replacement in March.
“There will be more offensive moves inside the system targeting legislators,” Law said. “It’s a serious warning that we should be aware of his next move, instead of just feeling happy.”
In citing family reasons for his departure, Leung tacitly acknowledged his fraught relationship with his daughter, Leung Chai-yan, who previously said she suffered from depression.
But experts believe that larger political forces caused the sudden announcement. Lam said: “He exacerbated divisions in Hong Kong and he’s most responsible for the rise of the pro-independence movement.”
Leung was also unpopular with the city’s business community, especially the handful of tycoons that own nearly all Hong Kong’s critical infrastructure.
In an effort to appeal to China’s leaders, he often favoured Chinese state-owned companies over privately owned businesses when awarding lucrative government contracts.
The Chinese government said it “deeply regrets” Leung’s decision not to seek another term, according to a statement from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
“The central government has consistently given recognition and high praise to his work,” the office said. “He has made important contributions to safeguarding national sovereignty, security, development interests and social and political stability in Hong Kong.”
Last month, Leung said the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, approved of his work.
Hong Kong’s financial secretary, John Tsang, and the pro-Beijing MP Regina Ip are widely expected to run for chief executive next year.
Ip, the former secretary for security, resigned from the post in 2003 after the government’s attempt to introduce anti-sedition legislation prompted widespread protests.
But the candidates will still be subject to vetting by China and are likely to continue with many of the same political priorities.
Lam said: “It’s a mistake to think this shows Beijing is taking a more tolerant stance on Hong Kong politics. The Chinese government just wants a less divisive, more palatable figure to push their agenda.”