Ex-leader CY Leung dares Foreign Correspondents’ Club to give up lease and make open bid for site as Andy Chan row escalates
The former chief executive ramps up his attack on the club for hosting a talk by a separatist party founder in a building “subsidised” by the government
Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying on Monday challenged the city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) to give up its lease and bid for the premises in the open market, as he ramped up his attacks over its refusal to cancel a planned talk this month by a separatist party founder.
“If the FCC believes that they are not being subsidised by [the] government, perhaps they should give up the lease and bid for the premises in the open market. The result would be conclusive,” he said in a written reply to questions raised by the Post, which he also uploaded to his Facebook page.
Leung called out the club over the weekend for paying only “a token rent” to the government for its building on Ice House Street in Central, but it turned out the FCC was paying market rent amounting to HK$580,000 monthly.
If the FCC believes that they are not being subsidised by [the] government, perhaps they should give up the lease and bid for the premises in the open market. The result would be conclusive