Numbers man Robert Chung faces down his critics again
Veteran pollster Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu delivered a typically strident defence of his work after it was questioned in Beijing
In 2000, amid a public inquiry into allegations of political interference with opinion polls, the veteran University of Hong Kong pollster Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu offered a simple response to those seeking to discredit him: "You will fail, sir".
That line may have crossed Chung's mind again this week as his work was called into question at the National People's Congress in Beijing.
No stranger to controversy, the director of the university's public opinion programme was dragged into a political row in recent days after Peter Lee Ka-kit, a son of property tycoon Lee Shau-kee, complained about Dr Chung's polls during a session in Beijing attended by senior Chinese cadre Zhang Dejiang - one of seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress.
Lee criticised Chung for releasing polls at "critical moments" with findings unfavourable to the Leung Chun-ying administration. Lee even proposed setting up a new agency that could conduct polls to counter Chung's work.
Known for his sharp mind and pointed wit, Chung dismissed Lee's attacks, and likened himself to the child in the tale The Emperor's New Clothes, who dares to speak the truth.
"But I demand something more than what the child does," Chung said in a recent interview. "The child has done it out of his intuition. For me, I report what I see based on scientific [findings]. This is the method social science uses to reach a conclusion.
"The emperor will of course be kept very happy because those beside him do not tell him the truth … He is blinded from the fact that, just a few steps away, the people are unhappy about him," said Chung.