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Asia Pacific |A Leader Squeezed by the Streets, and by Beijing
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Leung Chun-ying, the chief executive of Hong Kong, at a ceremony commemorating China's National Day on Wednesday. Credit Wong Maye-E/Associated Press HONG KONG — On the boisterous, steamy streets here, the man leading Hong Kong’s government has been likened in recent days to a vampire, a wolf, dog excrement and a criminal-at-large, his portrait adorning homemade “Wanted†posters.
Student protesters have even refashioned a stranded city bus into a coffin for Leung Chun-ying, the chief executive of Hong Kong and an ally of Communist Party leaders in Beijing. A sign on the bus said, “To hell.â€
Mr. Leung, 60, is the man on whom President Xi Jinping of China is relying to quell the enormous pro-democracy demonstrations that have gripped this financial capital and pose one of the biggest challenges in years to Communist Party rule. At the same time, Mr. Leung has become a main target of the protests, blamed for authorizing the riot police to tear-gas the protesters and seen as a symbol of Hong Kong’s lack of democracy.
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As he is squeezed ever tighter by both sides, he now has a third consideration to reckon with: saving his own job.
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Slide Show|8 Photos
Hong Kong Marks China’s National Day
Hong Kong Marks China’s National Day
CreditDennis M. Sabangan/European Pressphoto Agency
A call for his ouster has become a unifying demand of the tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators who have taken to the streets since Friday, and some political analysts say removing him may be the easiest course for Beijing, placating the protesters in the short term without giving in to the broader demands for open elections in Hong Kong.
While his words since the crisis erupted — including a Champagne toast on Wednesday to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China — have unstintingly toed Beijing’s line, his actions illustrate a shifting calculus in the face of competing pressures.
On Sunday, he ordered the riot police into the streets to confront peaceful protesters with tear gas and pepper spray. When that backfired, greatly expanding the number of protesters, he pulled the police back to their barracks on Monday. On Tuesday, he appeared to seek a middle ground, acknowledging that the protests will “last for quite a long period of time,†a signal that he and other officials were digging in for a war of attrition, and a bet that business-focused Hong Kong would eventually tire of the disruption and the protesters would lose support.
The constant recalibration reflects a tricky balancing act, supporters and critics alike acknowledge.
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“The constitutional arrangement according to the Basic Law says the chief executive has to serve two masters, the central government and the people of Hong Kong,†said Lau Nai-keung, a businessman and politician who has known Mr. Leung since the 1980s, when they both worked on drafting the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that governs Hong Kong. “He has to walk a tightrope.â€
It is a precarious path that Mr. Leung knows well. To his supporters, he remains a working-class hero, the son of a Hong Kong police officer who rose to become a wealthy real-estate services executive. He came to the job as an economic populist, and since taking office two years ago he has won favor in some quarters by adopting policies giving Hong Kong residents an advantage over mainland Chinese and foreigners in purchasing property in Hong Kong, and limiting the influx of pregnant mainland women trying to give birth here to bestow their children with Hong Kong residency.
But he has also amassed a record of doing Beijing’s bidding, and recent polls give him low approval ratings. In an early defeat, he backed a China-slanted patriotic education curriculum in Hong Kong schools in 2012. After mass student street protests, the program was vetoed by Hong Kong lawmakers.
Continue reading the main storyWhat Prompted the Hong Kong Protests?
Hong Kong belongs to China and operates under a policy of “one country, two systems.â€
That protest victory bolstered the belief by many of the same students that they could again stand up to Beijing this year. What lesson Mr. Leung took away was less clear.
He has refused to meet with the protesters, and on Wednesday, as they heckled his speech, he urged an end to the demonstrations and offered them no words of sympathy. Instead, he said “all sectors of the community†should work with the government in “a peaceful, lawful, rational and pragmatic manner.â€
Then he clinked Champagne glasses with Zhang Xiaoming, China’s top official for Hong Kong affairs.
Not known for theatrics or seeking the spotlight, Mr. Leung has a reputation as a cautious and bland politician who speaks in a stilted manner and wears a constant smile. While it is not clear how much authority he or any other chief executive has beyond carrying out Beijing’s wishes, critics say the chief executive should be Hong Kong’s advocate in Beijing, not the other way around.
Moreover, the fact that he holds office at all is, to democracy advocates, an example of everything they are fighting against.
Protesters mock him with the nickname “689,†a pointed reminder of the number of votes he won to take office in this city of seven million. It was a poor showing even on the 1,200-member election committee stacked heavily with Beijing’s allies.
That process lies at the heart of the current protests. China has promised Hong Kong the chief executive’s position would be elected by universal suffrage starting in 2017, but recently imposed rules effectively allow Beijing to vet the candidates.
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OPEN Map
Map: Areas of Protest in Hong Kong
“The biggest problem the Hong Kong people have against Leung Chun-ying is that he was not democratically elected,†said Jin Zhong, editor of Open Magazine, a Hong Kong publication on politics and society. “The Hong Kong people see him as a puppet of the party. He’s very close to the party, and so are his policies.â€
When Mr. Leung ran for chief executive, critics repeatedly raised the question of whether he was a secret member of the Chinese Communist Party. Martin Lee, a prominent pro-democracy politician, said Mr. Leung must have been a party member to have been appointed at the age of 31 to the committee advising on the Basic Law.
Mr. Leung denied the charges, though many Hong Kong residents harbor suspicions, since most of the estimated 3,000 party members in Hong Kong never admit to their status. After he won the chief executive job, the main party newspaper, People’s Daily, referred to him as “comrade,†a term officially reserved for party members. The word was later deleted from the online posting.
During a televised campaign debate, his main opponent, Henry Tang, raised further questions about Mr. Leung’s loyalties by saying Mr. Leung had argued in a closed-door meeting of senior officials in 2003 that the riot police should be deployed against protesters marching against a planned anti-subversion law pushed by Beijing.
“I have absolutely never said that,†Mr. Leung insisted, but Mr. Tang said he had heard the words himself in the meeting.
Mr. Tang’s campaign was ultimately derailed by scandal after Mr. Leung accused him of having secretly added a basement to his home without the proper permit or paying real estate fees to the government. But after Mr. Leung won the election, it emerged that his own mansion overlooking Victoria Harbor also had extensive changes for which he had not obtained permission or paid fees.
In recent years, Mr. Leung has dodged questions trying to pinpoint his judgment on the Tiananmen Square massacre ordered by Communist Party leaders in 1989, even though he condemned the bloodshed in the immediate aftermath.
The question now is whether party leaders will sacrifice Mr. Leung to pacify the protesters. Though Mr. Xi is a strongman who has not made any significant political concessions since taking power in 2012, removing Mr. Leung is an easier step for him than reversing Beijing’s August decision to deny Hong Kong open elections.
Nicholas Bequelin, a visiting scholar at Yale University and longtime resident of Hong Kong, said that was the outcome he expected.
“This would immediately lower the tensions in Hong Kong and open the possibility of finding accommodation to make the chief executive candidates more representative,†he said. “Most importantly, Beijing can in this way squarely shift the blame about the Hong Kong turmoil on C.Y. Leung, a very expedient way for Xi Jinping not to be seen as responsible for not handling Hong Kong correctly.â€
Reporting was contributed by Alan Wong and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong, Didi Kirsten Tatlow from Beijing, and Michael Forsythe from New Haven. Mia Li contributed research from Beijing.
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