[2][3] A surveyor by profession, Leung entered politics when he joined the Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee (HKBLCC) in 1985 and became its secretary-general in 1988.

Initially regarded as the underdog, Leung ran a successful campaign against front-runner Henry Tang, receiving 689 votes from the Election Committee and with the support of the Liaison Office.

[5][6] Leung returned to Hong Kong after becoming a chartered surveyor and joined the real estate company Jones Lang Wootton, where he worked for five years.

[15] In October 2011, one month before Leung announced his candidacy for the Hong Kong Chief Executive post, his company DTZ was hit by a liquidity crisis.

[16] The Age newspaper report stated that "the payments were made in two instalments, in 2012 and 2013, after he became Hong Kong's top official'' but were not declared on Leung's register of interests.

The payments relate to a deal in which UGL bought DTZ Holdings (the insolvent property services firm he was associated with), whose prospects depended on his network of managers and clients in Hong Kong and mainland China.

[16] Following the Fairfax Media revelations of this agreement and the rejected competitive bid, many more questioned Leung's integrity in the "secret transaction" signed a few days before his election, expressing concerns of potential conflicts of interest and fraudulent preference.

He was also a member of the National Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and only submitted his resignation one week prior to assuming his office of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong in 2012.

[34] In 2011, there were confrontations between police and demonstrators after the annual 1 July march amid public opposition to the government's draft legislation to eliminate by-elections for vacated Legco seats.

The early favourite to win was long-considered to be former Chief Secretary Henry Tang, who was supported by the local bureaucracy, key property and business tycoons, and crucially, by the Beijing government.

She also cited Leung's vague remarks about the 1989 Tiananmen massacre as a clue to his membership, in contrast to Henry Tang's greater sympathy for the protest movement.

Chief Executive contender Albert Ho challenged Leung's legal legitimacy as the territory's new leader but his claim was rejected by the High Court.

On top of the controversy surrounding illegal structures of his house, in which he was severely criticised as a hypocrite for using the same accusation in attacking his opponent during the 2012 election, there were additional disputes regarding his appointments of officers and political judgements.

[58] In February 2015, the Karolinska Institutet announced it had received a record US$50 million donation from Lau Ming-wai, who chairs Hong Kong property developer Chinese Estates Holdings, and would establish a research centre in the city.

[64] Alan Leong, leader of the Civic Party, accused Zhang of trying to provoke radicalisation in Hong Kong by stirring controversy.

"[71] In October 2020, Leung announced that he would start a judicial review, though his company 803 Funds Limited, to force the Education Bureau to publicly identify teachers found guilty over incidents during the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests.

"[72] On 13 October 2020, Leung publicly released the details of 18 teachers and tutors who were charged in the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, including naming some of their schools.

[77] In March 2021, Leung claimed that "In Hong Kong, by pushing on the democracy envelope too far, and by attempting to chip away the authority of Beijing in, for example, appointing the chief executive, many of the so-called democrats have become, in practice, separatists.

[81] Earlier in 2018, when the proposal was discussed, the Liber Research Community found almost 730 hectares of available land on brownfield sites, which would negate the need to build housing on country parks.

"[100] A month later in April 2024, Leung's successor, Chief Executive John Lee said the government would not disclose how much it spent on buying rights to broadcast the 2024 Olympics.

[101] In addition, in April 2024, the Tourism Board did not reveal how much it spent to bring 2,000 influencers and celebrities to Hong Kong to make short videos.

She has posted remarks on her Facebook account and has appeared in several magazine interviews, in which she talked about her depression and her stormy relationship with her parents, principally her mother.

[108] In March 2015, she posted a flurry of Facebook messages after a row with her mother in which she alleged she was kicked, slapped and sworn at; police and ambulance service were called to Government House.

Chung-yan had reportedly left her hand baggage in the departure hall after she had passed through the security checkpoint to board a flight for San Francisco.

The phone was passed onto airline staff, who brought Leung her bag, making clear that they had made an exception; she boarded her flight minutes later.

[112] Hong Kong Cabin Crew Federation called for direct talks with the Civil Aviation Department's director general regarding the "dangerous precedent" set by Leung.

[117] Leung has also been associated with and caricatured as Lufsig – an IKEA plush toy – after one was thrown at him by an anti-government protester in December 2013 during a town hall meeting.

[116] Lufsig is a plush wolf, whose original given Chinese name in mainland China "路姆西" resembles profanity in Cantonese, much to the delight of the Hong Kong citizens who dislike him.

Since becoming chief executive, Leung was bestowed the pejorative moniker "689", referring to the meagre number of votes that elected him into office, and is also used ironically to symbolise the lack of representation of the will of Hong Kong people at large.

[118][119][120][121] Puma, which posted an image of a facsimile runners identification tag bearing the number "D7689" onto its Facebook page to publicise its involvement in the 2015 Hong Kong marathon received a complaint that it was disrespectful to Leung, since "D7" was perceived to be the initials of a Cantonese profanity.