Leung Chun-ying
Leung Chun-ying , also known as CY Leung, is a Hong Kong politician and chartered surveyor who has served as vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference since March 2017. He was previously the third Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 2012 and 2017.
A surveyor by profession, Leung entered politics when he joined the Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee in 1985 and became its secretary-general in 1988. In 1999, he was appointed the convenor of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, a position he held until 2011, when he resigned to run in the 2012 Chief Executive election. Initially regarded as the underdog, Leung ran a successful campaign against front-runner Henry Tang, receiving 689 votes from the Election Committee and with the support of the Liaison Office.
At the beginning of his administration, Leung faced the anti-Moral and National Education protests and the Hong Kong Television Network protests. In 2014, Leung's government faced widespread civil disobedience targeting the government's constitutional reform proposals; the movement gained global attention as the "Umbrella Revolution". After the 2014 protests, Leung's government had to deal with the 2016 Mong Kok civil unrest. During his election campaign and governance, Leung also faced allegations related to his receipt of HK$50 million payment by UGL, which prompted initial investigations by the Australian Parliament. Leung's tenure coincided with the rise of social instability, localism in Hong Kong, and an independence movement for Hong Kong's separation from Chinese sovereignty. In December 2016, Leung announced he would not seek a second term, becoming the first Chief Executive not to do so.
Early life and education
Leung was born at Queen Mary Hospital, the teaching hospital of University of Hong Kong, in Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong on 12 August 1954 to Leung Zung-Jan and Kong Sau-Zi of Shandong origin. His father was a Hong Kong police officer who had stationed at the Government House.Leung earned a scholarship to study at King's College, where he was a classmate of future democratic activist Lau San-ching. After graduation, he attended Hong Kong Polytechnic. In 1974, Leung undertook further studies in valuation and estate management at the Bristol Polytechnic and graduated in 1977 first in his class.
Business career
Leung returned to Hong Kong after becoming a chartered surveyor and joined the real estate company Jones Lang Wootton, where he worked for five years. By the age of 30, he was made vice-chairman of the JLW branch in Hong Kong, and was reported to be making a yearly salary of HK$10 million.Leung became the real estate advisor for Zhu Rongji when Zhu was mayor and party chief in Shanghai from 1987 to 1991. Zhu later became the Vice-Premier and then the 5th Premier of the People's Republic of China from March 1998 to March 2003. Later, in 2013, Leung appointed Levin Zhu Yunlai, the elder son of former premier Zhu Rongji, as an advisor in the Hong Kong Government's Financial Services Development Council.
From 1995 to 1996, Leung was the president of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors. He is a former chairman of the Hong Kong branch of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. After holding the post, Leung became an honorary advisor for the local governments of Shenzhen, Tianjian and Shanghai on land reform. He has also taken up the post of international economic advisor for Hebei.
From 2002 to 2007, Leung was a board member in the Government of Singapore-owned banking firm DBS Group Holdings Ltd and DBS Bank Hong Kong Ltd.
DTZ Holdings
In 1993, Leung set up his own surveying company C. Y. Leung & Co., in Hong Kong, which then quickly set up many offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen. In 1995, C. Y. Leung & Co joined an international alliance comprising CB Commercial, Debenham Tewson & Chinnocks and DTZ. By 2000, his company merged with Singapore's Dai Yuk-coeng Company into DTZ Debenham Tie Leung Limited.In December 2006, after a complex share swap, Leung emerged as owner of 4.61% of the 200-year-old London listed property consultancy DTZ Holdings. The deal involved HK$330 million cash and a share deal with Leung. In 2007, DTZ Holdings, replete with a US$400 million fund, expanded into the property market in mainland China. This fund was to be passed through Leung's regional company DTZ Asia Pacific.
In October 2011, one month before Leung announced his candidacy for the Hong Kong Chief Executive post, his company DTZ was hit by a liquidity crisis. Following this, after informing the London Stock Exchange that its shares were worthless, the board of DTZ, including Leung, agreed to sell DTZ to UGL. On 24 November 2011, Leung resigned as director from the board of DTZ and on 28 November 2011 announced his candidacy for the Hong Kong Chief Executive election.
UGL controversy
In October 2014, investigative reporters from the Australian newspaper The Age revealed details of an agreement Leung had signed on 2 December 2011, which entitled him to payment of 4 million from UGL in exchange for his supporting the acquisition of DTZ group assets by UGL, for not competing with UGL/DTZ and making himself available to provide advisory services for a period of two years from that date. The Age newspaper report stated that "the payments were made in two instalments, in 2012 and 2013, after he became Hong Kong's top official" but were not declared on Leung's register of interests. The payments relate to a deal in which UGL bought DTZ Holdings, whose prospects depended on his network of managers and clients in Hong Kong and mainland China. Australian media also revealed that on the same day Leung signed the agreement, China's state-owned Tianjin Innovation Financial Investment Company had made a bid that valued DTZ at GBP100 million more than the bid by UGL, but that this more valuable bid was rejected by the DTZ board, which included Leung, and not released to shareholders. In December 2012, nine months after winning the Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Leung received the first tranche from UGL.Following the Fairfax Media revelations of this agreement and the rejected competitive bid, many more questioned Leung's integrity in the "secret transaction" signed a few days before his election, expressing concerns of potential conflicts of interest and fraudulent preference. Prosecutors from Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption started investigations into this scandal, as did authorities in Australia. The abrupt and unprecedented sacking of Rebecca Li Bo-lan, a 30-year veteran graft-buster and the first female head of the ICAC investigative unit appointed in June 2015, fuelled suspicions of Leung's attempts to impede investigation.
Early political career
In 1985, Leung joined the Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee, a 180-member body nominated by the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee, that was to consult with Hong Kong people regarding various drafts of the Hong Kong Basic Law. The working of the BLCC was criticised as it had not established any formal machinery for the consultation process and did not indicate the degree of public support of views expressed. In 1988, Leung, then aged 34, was made the Secretary-General of the committee, replacing Mao Junnian. Former CCP member Leung Mo-han, and Leung's critics, have suggested that Leung must be a secret member of the Communist party, since, per the rules of the Chinese Communist Party, such senior positions are normally assumed only by party members. In 1990, the BLCC ceased to exist after the Basic Law was adopted by the National People's Congress. He was a founding member of the New Hong Kong Alliance set up by Lo Tak-shing in 1989 who led to a faction of the Group of 89, a conservative business and professional lobby group in the HKBLCC and HKBLDC. In 1989, the NHKA put forward an ultra-conservative proposal for the electoral methods for the Chief Executive and Legislative Council of the SAR.Then-Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa appointed Leung as the convenor of the Executive Council in 1998, replacing his predecessor Chung Sze-yuen. During Tung's 1997 policy address, he proposed that the government would build no less than 85,000 flats every year, allowing 70% of the citizens to own a house within 10 years. However, the proposal was put on hold in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. As convenor of the Executive Council, CY Leung has been questioned many times regarding this policy plan over the years. The 1997 pledge was not met. In 1999, Leung was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the Hong Kong Government. In the 2002 Chief Executive election, Leung became the chairman of Tung Chee-hwa's campaign office. Tung was re-elected uncontestedly as a result.
He was also a member of the National Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and only submitted his resignation one week prior to assuming his office of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong in 2012. He is currently the chairman and sits on the board of directors of the pro-Beijing One Country Two Systems Research Institute.
In 1999, Leung took over the position of council chairman of Lingnan University. In the same year, on 16 June 1999 the Lingnan College received University status. Leung continued in this position for nine years, until 21 October 2008.
In April 2008, Leung was appointed as chairman and member of the council of the City University of Hong Kong. Leung held this position until 2011. In terms of his performance as chairman, the university staff had scored Leung less than one point on a scale of 10. During his tenure as chairman, Leung was accused of attempts to weaken the power of the staff association.
In 2011, there were confrontations between police and demonstrators after the annual 1 July march amid public opposition to the government's draft legislation to eliminate by-elections for vacated Legco seats. Leung responded by saying that such rowdy rallies should be "sanctioned and restrained".