Hong Kong lawmakers try to impeach Beijing-backed leader

Lawmakers were making a symbolic attempt Wednesday to impeach Hong Kong's Beijing-backed leader, the latest sign of the widening gulf between the semiautonomous southern Chinese city and its political masters in Beijing.

Pro-democracy members of Hong Kong's legislature were planning to introduce a motion to charge the city's leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, with serious breaches of law that could lead to his impeachment. They allege Leung misled them about illegal renovations to his mansion.

It's the first such attempt to impeach a Hong Kong leader since the former British colony came back under China's control in 1997. Leung survived a no-confidence vote in December.

The motion was unlikely to pass because the 27 legislators are outnumbered by pro-Beijing representatives in the 70-seat Legislative Council. But it was an attempt to "show the deep mistrust against the chief executive,'' who is suffering from a credibility crisis, said Ma Ngok, a political scientist at Chinese University of Hong Kong. Leung, whose approval rating has fallen to around 50 percent, still has the support of China's communist leaders.

Leung has become a lightning rod for growing public discontent since taking office in July. Anger over a wide range of issues stems from the city's fraught relationship with mainland China.

On New Year's Day, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to call for Leung to step down and to press for full democracy. Beijing has pledged that Hong Kong residents can elect their leader by 2017 at the earliest though no roadmap has been laid out.

Leung took office in July after being handpicked for the city's top job by an elite group of mostly pro-Beijing tycoons. He won the job after taking advantage of a scandal involving a huge, unauthorized basement in his rival's home. But shortly before taking office, illegal additions were also discovered at Leung's home in the exclusive Victoria Peak neighborhood.

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