Hong Kong's next chief executive was revealed on 25 March 2012, when the 1,193-member election committee, made up largely of business leaders, professionals, and influential persons loyal to Bei- jing, voted in majority for Leung Chun-ying. Leung defeated his main op- ponent, former chief secretary for administration Henry Tang Ying-yen, by garnering 689 votes over the 285 that Tang received. The third candidate, Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan, secured only 76 votes.The controversy-ridden race to the Special Administrative Region's top position began in November 2011 after Leung resigned from the Executive Council and officially announced his candidacy. Both Tang and Leung are from the larger pro-establishment (jianzhi??) camp, marking the first di- rect competition between two candidates on the same side of the political spectrum. As late as early 2012, the common perception was still that ty- coon-backed Tang would emerge as victor. Son of a wealthy textile family with good political connections on the mainland, Tang had from the begin- ning secured the support of the business community and the city's top real estate developers, including such big names as Li Ka-shing of Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd., Raymond and Walter Kwok of Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., and Lee Shau-kee of Henderson Land Development Co. Ltd. He was widely seen as Beijing's undisputed pick and its best bet for a smooth political tran- sition. Indeed, supporters of Tang exuded such self-confidence early on that one of them even called upon candidates without Beijing's blessings to be considerate (guquan daju????) and pull out of the race. (1)A post-one country, two systems era?That Leung eventually defeated Tang after a protracted campaign raised speculation about the political support system working behind the scenes to engineer his victory. What caused Tang's popularity to rapidly plummet was an explosive series of scandals. On 13 February, local newspapers re- vealed that Tang had illegally constructed a 2,400-square-foot "underground palace" at his residence. Tang said the descriptions were untrue, insisting it was only storage space. Inspection by the Buildings Department, however, later confirmed the existence of the huge basement. The candidate reacted immediately by having his wife, Lisa KuoYu-chin, shoulder the blame, telling reporters that "[the basement] was my wife's idea." A tearful Kuo admitted that she "just wanted to plan a comfy place for my family" and that she was "very, very sorry."(2)Tang's unwise move prompted Apple Daily, an anti- establishment local tabloid, to accuse him of selling out his wife for power.(3) South China Morning Post also published a damning editorial calling for Tang to withdraw, arguing that "his integrity has been seriously compro- mised."(4)"One oversight is perhaps not fatal," the editorial said, "But at- tempts to cover up one's mistakes are political suicide." A week later, Tang's private emails with his alleged lover were exposed, followed by the circula- tion of photos of his illegitimate child born before his marriage to Kuo. These reignited frenzied probes into Tang's extra-marital affairs and added fuel to incriminating remarks about his dishonesty, infidelity, and "emotional fault" (ganqing queshi ????).Commentator Willy Lam Wo-lap and Open University computing profes- sor Li Tak-shing both raised the alarm that these "black materials" (hei cailiao ???) might in fact have come from national security and intelligence services working for Beijing.(5)Lam specifically pointed to the Central Liaison Office (CLO)(zhongyang renmin zhengfu zhu Xianggang tebie xingzhengqu lianluo bangongshi???????????????????), an organ of the Central People's Government and the de facto United Front (tongzhan ??) headquarters stationed in the SAR responsible for propagandistic ef- forts, the successor to the Hong Kong branch of the Xinhua News Agency.(6) According to Lam, the CLO is an expansive bureaucracy with 23 depart- ments working under the leadership of one director and nine deputy direc- tors. …