Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung admits daughter has been receiving medical treatment

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying made a rare plea to the public yesterday to leave his elder daughter alone, as he admitted for the first time that she was receiving medical treatment for emotional instability.

Addressing the public and media after Leung Chai-yan, 23, found herself in the spotlight over dramatic social media posts and a call to police, Leung said: "Please give us more space and time.

"Every parent has this feeling. Every parent around the world in his or her heart thinks alike. Only a son or daughter would say something unpleasant about their parents, and not vice versa."

He admitted, for the first time, that his daughter had experienced unspecified "health problems" since going to Britain to study.

The drama began at about 6am, when a post appeared on Chai-yan's Facebook page saying her mother had assaulted her. Her father later denied that any such assault had happened.

One posting read: "My mother just literally pushed me up against a wall slapped me [sic]. I fell, hit my spine against corner of study table."

At 11am police officers and an ambulance turned up at the family's residence, Government House in Central. Chai-yan is understood to have dialled 999, saying she had been assaulted.