CY Leung feud with activist Avery Ng and anti-Beijing newspaper Apple Daily gets personal with ad ridiculing Hong Kong ex-leader

A bitter verbal feud between former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying and his critics has taken a significantly personal turn in a public forum, with an anti-Beijing newspaper publishing a full front page advertisement on Monday to ridicule him.

Leung remained defiant and combative after political activist Avery Ng Man-yuen, fresh from his acquittal on appeal last month of throwing a tuna sandwich at the former chief executive, took out the advertisement in the Chinese-language Apple Daily, offering him a one-way flight ticket to Beijing and challenging him to take over as China’s leader.

Leung, who now enjoys the status of an elder statesman as a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the nation’s top advisory body, has engaged in an open spat with the activist as well as the newspaper, particularly over its commentaries on mainland Chinese people and a pro-Beijing politician who died last month.

He has recently urged consumers to boycott the newspaper’s advertisers and posted a list of them almost every day on his Facebook page, prompting the Hong Kong Journalists Association to express “deep concern” about the impact on the companies behind the advertisements.

Ng upped the ante by announcing a crowd funding campaign last Tuesday to raise HK$120,000 for the advertisement space, surpassing his goal less than a day later.