MCLC: Beijing switches sides in HK race

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Beijing switches sides in HK race
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (3/21/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/world/asia/beijing-switches-support-in-ra
ce-for-hong-kong-chief.html

Beijing Switches Sides in the Race for Hong Kong¹s Chief Executive
By KEITH BRADSHER

HONG KONG ‹ China 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/c
hina/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>¹s leaders have begun actively supporting a
populist to become the next chief executive of Hong Kong in elections this
Sunday, abandoning their previous private support for a wealthy civil
servant whose candidacy has been plagued by scandals, local politicians
and political analysts said Wednesday.

Active backing from Beijing makes it increasingly likely that Leung
Chun-ying, a real estate surveyor who advocates more construction of
public housing, will defeat Henry Tang, the wealthy scion of a Shanghai
textile manufacturing family who was Hong Kong¹s second-ranking official,
chief secretary, until he stepped down last autumn to run for chief
executive.

Only 1,193 people are eligible to vote in the election, as representatives
of various sectors of society. Sectors deemed to be friendly to Beijing,
like traditional Chinese medicine, have far more electors relative to
their share of the population than do sectors deemed hostile, like social
workers or lawyers.

Pro-Beijing newspapers here have begun giving prominent, enthusiastic
coverage to Mr. Leung. Beijing¹s representative office here, the Liaison
Office, has been taking vanloads of electors across the border to Shenzhen
for meetings with Liu Yandong, the only female member of the Chinese
Communist Party¹s Politburo, to discuss the advantages of Mr. Leung¹s
candidacy, political activists in Hong Kong said.

Regina Ip, a lawmaker and the chairwoman of the New People¹s Party, which
has stayed neutral in the race so far, said that invitations to the
Shenzhen meetings had become sought after among pro-Beijing lawmakers.
³Some people are disappointed that they have not been invited to
Shenzhen,² she said.

Officials at the Liaison Office and with Mr. Leung¹s campaign would not
comment. Mr. Leung has consistently led in public opinion surveys, with
Mr. Tang coming in second and Albert Ho, the chairman of the Democratic
Party, a distant third.

Mr. Leung has won a reputation as a populist by challenging the dominance
of a handful of large real estate groups and suggesting that the
government should build more housing. That campaign platform has been
popular at a time of very high rents and high apartment prices, partly
because of an influx of investors from mainland China.

Mr. Tang¹s campaign has floundered since autumn despite strong early
backing from most of Hong Kong¹s real estate tycoons and from the
so-called Shanghai faction in Beijing. He admitted last year that he had
been unfaithful to his wife, after local news reports linked him to a
series of women.

He conceded last month that he had built a basement under a villa
belonging to his wife without planning permission or the payment of real
estate taxes 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/world/asia/henry-tang-a-candidate-to-lea
d-hong-kong-runs-into-trouble.html>. Mr. Tang initially blamed his wife,
saying he had not tried to fix the problem because of stresses in his
marriage, but he later took personal responsibility.

Mr. Tang has tried to recover politically by suggesting that as chief
executive, Mr. Leung might be more likely to restrict civil liberties.
While still in his 30s, Mr. Leung played a large role in helping Beijing
write Hong Kong¹s mini-Constitution, which took effect after the British
returned the territory to Chinese rule in 1997.

Mr. Leung¹s early prominence has prompted suggestions that he might have
been a member of the Chinese Communist Party, which functions as an
underground group in Hong Kong and is believed to have no more than a few
hundred members.

Mr. Leung¹s campaign issued a statement on Sunday denying that he had ever
been a party member, or that he had ever asked to join the party or been
invited to join.

Mr. Tang said in a debate last Friday that during large pro-democracy
demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2003, Mr. Leung had suggested during a
top-level government meeting that it might be necessary to deploy riot
officers or tear gas.

Mr. Leung, Mrs. Ip and several other prominent Hong Kong politicians who
were in the government at the time have denied that he made this
suggestion and have pointed out that top officials take an oath of secrecy
about their deliberations.

Mr. Tang responded that the public interest should be more important than
secrecy.