Something’s Gotta Give: A Banker Weighs In on Hong Kong’s Leader

As Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying denies he did anything wrong in receiving a $6.4 million payment as part of a noncompete agreement just before he took office, a banker’s comment that Mr. Leung will face calls to step down has drawn attention.

David Eldon–the former chairman of HSBC Holdings HSBA.LN 0.00% PLC’s Asia operation who is now nonexecutive chairman of HSBC’s Middle East unit—said on his blog: “Whatever the truth in this particular matter is, I am pretty sure that it will be blown up to the extent that, legal or not, C.Y. Leung will face calls to step down.”

Mr. Eldon said in his blogpost on Thursday titled “Hong Kong: The Light, the Dark and the Long Term” that such pressure could come from Hong Kong itself as well as from Beijing. 

Hong Kong Protesters Appeal to Xi Jinping in Open Letter

HONG KONG — The standoff between Hong Kong’s government and protesters who have taken control of vital avenues entered its third week on Sunday with no signs of a resolution, as the student leaders of the demonstration appealed to President Xi Jinping of China to accept their position, which was then flatly rejected by Hong Kong’s leader.

Huge swaths of some of the world’s most expensive real estate remained blocked by hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators on Sunday. In the past weeks, their numbers have swollen into the thousands each evening. Many parents have brought their children to witness a real-life civics lesson amid the surreal sight of a tent city expanding day by day on an eight-lane road in the heart of Asia’s most important financial center.

Commentary: Dictators and tycoons gang up to deny the people of China and Hong Kong meaningful political participation

As former Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung-chee Hwa, himself a tycoon, is about to lead a delegation of more than 40 Hong Kong tycoons to Beijing on Monday to engage in talks with Xi Jinping and other Communist Party officials, it’s important to recall that the most powerful political institutions in both Hong Kong and the mainland are stacked with the wealthiest people. They are not elected but appointed.