the Grand Bauhinia Medal in July 2002 for her "distinguished public service", and for her "significant contributions in ensuring the successful implementation of the new constitutional order under the One country, two systems concept". She retired from office in October 2005. Controversies and views Leung was involved in controversy in 1999 when, as Secretary for Justice, she refused to prosecute Sally Aw over the circulation fraud at The Standard. The Hong Kong Bar Association accused her of being "careless" in her handling of the case for failing to ensure that justice was seen to be done. The Democratic Party and the Liberal Party backed legal-sector legislator Margaret Ng's motion of no-confidence. However, during the Legislative Council vote, the Liberal Party objected to government lobbying. It accused the Tung administration of applying "back door" pressure on them to support Leung. The Liberals abstained in the vote, and party deputy chairman Ronald Arculli staged a walk-out. The Hong Kong government however expressed full confidence in Leung, saying that in all the above cases she had acted entirely in accordance with the Basic Law and the prosecution policy of the Department of Justice. In March 2021, after Beijing announced changes to restrict the influence of district councillors as well as filtering potential Legislative Council members through the election committee, Leung claimed that Hong Kong could still move towards democracy after things "return to the right track." In April 2021, Leung claimed that moves to ensure only "patriots" serve in the government did not go against the principles of having a "high degree of autonomy," and claimed that such changes were not designed for "taking steps back" in democratic progress. In November 2022, Leung privately shared that she backed the Court of Final Appeal's decision which allowed Jimmy Lai to hire Tim Owen, and that the NPCSC interpretation to ban foreign lawyers was not necessary, citing Xi Jinping's message that Hong Kong maintain the use of the common law system. However, Leung said she was not opposed to John Lee asking the NPCSC to step in. See also List of graduates of University of Hong Kong References External links US-Asia Institute: The Honorable Elsie Leung 1939 births Living people Government officials of Hong Kong Secretaries for Justice of Hong Kong Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Recipients of the Grand Bauhinia Medal Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Solicitors of Hong