李怡，1936年生，香港知名時事評論家、作家。1970年曾創辦雜誌《七十年代》，1984年更名《九十年代》，直至1998年停刊。後在《蘋果日報》撰寫專欄，筆耕不輟半世紀。著有文集《放逐》、《思緒》、《對應》等十數本。正在Matters連載首部自傳《失敗者回憶錄》：「我一生所主張所推動的事情，社會總是向相反趨向發展，無論是閱讀，獨立思考或民主自由都如是。這就是我所指的失敗的人生。」

Memoirs of a Loser 182: The Chief Executive's Battle of the Pig and the Wolf

Aug 17, 2022

"The soul is full of meanness, the pocket is full of booty, and the mouth is full of lies"

After 1997, Hong Kong could not keep the original system and fell completely to the CCP system. It is believed that the 2012 chief executive election was the turning point. In that so-called election, the CCP finally gave up Tang Yingnian, who has a background of traditional wealthy businessmen and high-ranking officials in Hong Kong, and chose Leung Chun-ying, who has been cultivated for a long time and full of the power consciousness of the CCP, as the chief executive, and began the journey of the two systems to death.

While this is still a coterie election, the level of competition is unprecedented in Hong Kong. And the competition also reflects the CCP’s internal power struggle over Hong Kong policy.

Before Leung Chun-ying, in order to maintain the stability of Hong Kong, the CCP especially made Hong Kong people and the international community believe that the original system of Hong Kong would remain unchanged. Therefore, in society, it relied on the original Chinese capital in Hong Kong as the economic pillar; in politics, it relied on the original system. Some civil servants. The first chief executive was Tung Chee-hwa, a Hong Kong businessman. The successor is Tsang Yam-kuen, a senior official of the Hong Kong-British era who has served in public office for nearly 40 years.

As for Zeng Yinquan, because he has served under the British leadership for a long time, according to the concept of the CCP's enemy, he is not at ease. I believe it is also for this reason that on many issues, such as the Cultural Revolution and June 4th, Tsang had to consider his position close to Beijing. But overall, I think he is the most Hong Konger of all the Chief Executives.

Tsang has always wanted to find a two-way universal suffrage solution acceptable to both sides between the CCP and the people of Hong Kong. He claimed that as long as any popular suffrage plan received 60% support, he would submit it to the central government. Under his urging, the CCP agreed to achieve universal suffrage for the chief executive in 2017, and three years later, in 2020, to consider universal suffrage for the Legislative Council.

In 2010, the Legislative Council passed a political reform plan negotiated by the Democratic Party and the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government. Although there are many people in Hong Kong who oppose the compromise of the Democratic Party, from the perspective of the CCP, it is Tsang Yinquan's failure to control the political situation, forcing the CCP to make concessions.

In the second year, Hong Kong society began to discuss the candidate for the next chief executive. So I put forward in the editorial of "Apple Daily" how under the CCP's one-party dictatorship, how the successor chief executive needs to get out of the dilemma of serving and serving Beijing. I have thought of a few points: First, to make Beijing have confidence in the party’s loyalty to the successor, there is no need to keep reminding “patriotism and Hong Kong” (actually synonymous with “love the party”); second, the successor will protect the Hong Kong's interests, upholding one country, two systems, and Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong's standpoint should listen to and cooperate with the central government's intentions, instead of constantly speculating and catering to the intentions that the central government does not have. And the need to "sparse" the democrats.

I think there is only one person who is most suitable, and that is Jasper Jasper. He was the founder and first chairman of the DAB, the largest party in the establishment. Many suspected him of being a Communist. Based on decades of observation and experience, I believe that Communist Party members with ideals are not necessarily disrespectful, but peripheral leftists who deliberately cater to the powerful are even more terrifying.

The editorial titled "Jasper Jasper is the most suitable candidate for the next chief executive" was published. Before publishing the editorial, the boss was a little worried that readers would think that "Apple" would turn into a pro-CCP, and finally the president decided to add a question mark to the title.

Soon, the daughter of an old leader in the leftist camp I used to invite me to dinner. This lady, I have always considered her to be my follower. When I negotiated with her dad about the Seventies, she was still in elementary school. She later went to study in the UK. When "70s" was boycotted by leftists, she sent me a letter of support. In the closed issue of "90s", she published a poem under a pseudonym, one of which was: "Although we put down "90s", its spirit is like the sun, moon and stars...". She returned to Hong Kong after finishing university in the UK and became a senior civil servant in the Hong Kong-British era. Leave after ninety-seven. She likes to chat with me about her work and life. After her father died, we still kept in touch and talked about literature and art.

But in this meeting, she said that she participated in Leung Chun-ying's campaign team for the election of the chief executive, and hoped that I would also support it. I categorically refused and told her what I had observed about Leung Chun-ying over the decades: he was a man of scheming, lack of integrity, and flickering words. Supporting him as chief executive will hurt Hong Kong. But I couldn't convince her. Because I can see that she has the task assigned by the CCP. And it dawned on me that I was seeing the wrong person: I thought she was a follower of my ideas, but she was actually one of the CCP's heirs to power in Hong Kong. She brought me some of Leung Chun-ying's candidacy announcements, and I said I would just throw them away. Because of this, we have almost no contact in the future.

Next, Tang Yingnian and Leung Chun-ying announced their candidacy. I wrote an article in the Apple editorial titled "In the Dilemma Between Pigs and Wolves, Pigs Are Better." The wolf is a metaphor for the ruthless Liang Zhenying; the pig is a metaphor for Tang Yingnian who speaks in front of the camera and behaves a little clumsily. This metaphor made the "Battle of Pigs and Wolves" popular for a while. But pigs aren't actually stupid. Before his return, Tang was appointed as a member of the Legislative Council, and then ran for election to the Legislative Council from a functional constituency. Both election experience and senior official qualifications. During his tenure as Financial Secretary, he was much admired for exempting inheritance and wine taxes. In addition, he came from a family of entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. His father was closely related to the Shanghai Gang of Jiang Zemin's system, and he was also supported by the Hong Kong business community.

In terms of conditions, Tang Yingnian is much better than Liang Zhenying. His succession as chief executive is a foregone conclusion. However, the underground party of the CCP and the Liaison Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China believe that the big businessmen in Hong Kong and the "legacy of the British Hong Kong" are unreliable, and the most reliable ones are "our own people". And Leung Chun-ying, who has been hiding for many years and has been saying that he "will not elect a chief executive for N years", is "his own person" who does not rely on the business community, has nothing to do with the British Hong Kong regime, and is considered by the CCP to have "clean social relations". Therefore, the CCP's underground party in Hong Kong approached Xi Jinping, who was in charge of Hong Kong and Macau affairs at the time and was about to become general secretary, and instead appointed Liang Zhenying. This was a turning point in the CCP’s takeover of power in Hong Kong.

Liang Zhenying was originally behind Tang Yingnian in the polls, but with the support or information provided by the CCP, he detonated two bombs of Tang Yingnian's extramarital affair and illegal house construction, suppressing Tang Yingnian's popularity. After the CCP's private mobilization, Leung Chun-ying was elected with 689 votes. At about the same time in Taiwan's presidential election, Ma Ying-jeou was elected with 6.89 million votes. That's 10,000 times the number of votes for Hong Kong's chief executive. On the polling day, Li Ka-shing publicly stated that "I will vote for Mr. Tang" and is considered to have broken political relations with the CCP.

After Leung Chun-ying was elected, it was revealed that his mansion was also illegally built. On July 1, when he took office, one of the themes of the Hong Kong parade was "Leung Chun-ying step down." Two years after taking office, it was revealed that he had privately collected HK$50 million from Australian companies.

His next performance reminded me of the political figures written by the American writer Mark Twain: "The soul is full of vileness, the pocket is full of booty, and the mouth is full of lies".