Speculation Mounts: Hong Kong Chief Executive’s Days Numbered

The talk in Hong Kong is not about whether Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying will be cashiered, but when. A recent meeting of the Hong Kong police with a triad head has fueled the speculation.
Speculation Mounts: Hong Kong Chief Executive’s Days Numbered
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying speaks on July 1, 2013 in Hong Kong. The speculation in Hong Kong is that he has displeased Beijing and will not last much longer as chief executive. (Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images)
9/11/2013
Updated:
9/11/2013

HONG KONG—The talk in Hong Kong is not about whether Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying will be cashiered, but when. A recent meeting of the Hong Kong police with a triad head has fueled the speculation.

According to South China Morning Post, on September 3, the police held a private meeting with the head of the 14k Triads in Yuen Long, the New Territories.

A source told the Post “He [the head of 14K mafia at Yuen Long] was told clearly, the police will not tolerate anyone who causes trouble. Otherwise, action will be taken.”

Sources in the police department say Leung is going to attend a community forum at Hung Shui Kiu, Yuen Long. The police meeting with the triad head is apparently an attempt to forestall Leung Chun-ying from once again using gangsters at one of his events. At a community forum held by Leung at Tin Shui Wai on Aug. 11, triads beat anti-Leung protesters.

The mafia head whom the police met on Sept. 3 is a native inhabitant of Yuen Long. According to sources, this person attended the dinner held by Leung’s election team in February last year.

His attendance at the dinner led to rumors that Leung was mobilizing the mafia to help in his election campaign. This same individual was arrested last August during a police clean-up of the Wo Shing Wo and 14k triads.

A former member of Hong Kong Government’s Central Policy Unit, Lin Yuet-tsang, wrote an article in the Hong Kong Economic Journal (HKEJ) in February this year, pointing out the relationship between Leung and the mafia. Leung was upset with the article and sent a letter through his lawyer to warn Lin and HKEJ.

Sources say that Chinese Communist Party head Xi Jinping is already tired of Leung and very dissatisfied with him introducing the triads into Hong Kong politics. According to sources, the police were directed to order the mafia not to back up Leung.

On July 16 a clear signal of Party Central’s displeasure with Leung Chun-ying was sent all of Hong Kong when the director of China’s Liaison Office, Zhang Xiaoming, had lunch with the Legislative Council without notifying Chief Executive Leung.

The Epoch Times has previously reported that the faction around former Party head Jiang Zemin is backing up Leung, whose career in the Party has been promoted by Zeng Qinghong, a Jiang stalwart.

With the PetroChina investigation further degrading the already waning power of the Jiang faction, the backing by Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong will count for less.

Legislative Council member Chan Wai-yip thinks that Leung Chun-ying will not survive beyond this year, “a change or substitution is likely to take place after the Third Plenary Session.” The Third Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Party Congress will meet in November 2013.

“People will not believe any person who is full of lies and deception like C.Y. Leung,” Chan Wai-yip said.