HONG KONG — On the boisterous, steamy streets here, the man leading Hong Kong’s government has been likened in recent days to a vampire, a wolf, dog excrement and a criminal-at-large, his portrait adorning homemade “Wanted” posters.
Student protesters have even refashioned a stranded city bus into a coffin for Leung Chun-ying, the chief executive of Hong Kong and an ally of Communist Party leaders in Beijing. A sign on the bus said “To hell.”
Mr. Leung, 60, is the man on whom President Xi Jinping of China is relying to quell the enormous pro-democracy demonstrations that have gripped this financial capital and pose one of the biggest challenges in years to Communist Party rule. At the same time, Mr. Leung has become a main target of the protests, blamed for authorizing the riot police to tear-gas the protesters and seen as a symbol of Hong Kong’s lack of democracy.
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