HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong’s embattled leader announced the resignations of two senior aides Wednesday and said he would fly to Beijing for talks about the territory’s worst political crisis since the 1997 handover.

Critics said Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa was the main cause of Hong Kong’s deep problems and insisted he too should go.

Tung is under fire over a worsening economy and an anti-subversion bill that critics say would curtail Hong Kong’s civil liberties.

“The crux of the matter is the chief executive himself,” said lawmaker Emily Lau. “His administration is actually disintegrating. So I think Mr. Tung should go and give Hong Kong a fresh start.”

There was no indication that Tung, the man China picked to lead post-British Hong Kong, planned to step down. Nor did he link the resignations of Regina Ip and Antony Leung to recent events. But the government said he would fly to Beijing on Saturday to brief leaders there.

Ip, the outgoing secretary for security, had been in charge of pushing an anti-subversion bill as required by Hong Kong’s constitution. The measure was put on hold after 500,000 people turned out July 1 to protest.

Leung, who resigned as financial secretary, was ensnared in a conflict-of-interest scandal. Prosecutors are weighing criminal charges after he bought a luxury car shortly before raising auto taxes, saving himself more than $24,000. He said it was an oversight and sought to make amends by donating money to charity.

In an economy troubled by rising unemployment, the scandal heightened perceptions that Tung’s top aides were not properly accountable. Tung had earlier reprimanded Leung but refused his offer to resign.

These were the first such resignations since Britain handed its colony back to Chinese sovereignty under the so-called “one country, two systems” doctrine that puts Beijing in overall charge but leaves Hong Kong highly autonomous, with its own English-based legal system, free press and capitalist economy.

But civil libertarians feared the anti-subversion bill would subject Hong Kong to some of the curbs on free speech and assembly that exist in communist China. The role of “people power” in forcing Tung to back down raises intriguing questions about how the crisis will be resolved, and how well Beijing will put up with pressure for more democracy in Hong Kong.

China’s new leadership, which replaced the one that devised postcolonial Hong Kong’s system, has so far kept its response minimal, which many here view as an encouraging sign.

China is eager to continue opening up the country and to showcase its achievements when it hosts the 2008 Olympics. But it has traditionally worried that Hong Kong’s democratic impulses, left unchecked, would infect China’s own people. Now those impulses are exploding into the open, and emboldened Hong Kongers are raising the call for full democracy.

“This is a breakthrough of people’s power, but of course we are still a long way from victory,” said lawmaker Cheung Man-kwong.

The anti-subversion bill and car-buying scandal “were only breaking points,” Cheung said. “The real underlying problem is Tung Chee-hwa’s incompetent rule in the past six years that incited public fury.”

Hong Kong’s 6.8 million people have no say in choosing their leader, although they directly elect some lawmakers.

Ip said she resigned “entirely due to personal reasons” but also expressed regret that she failed to get the anti-subversion bill into law.

She and Tung had repeatedly said worries about freedoms were overblown. Now the bill is now in limbo, although Tung said it must eventually be passed.

Tung said Ip had proposed stepping down on June 25 for personal reasons and that he argued she should stay, suggesting she take leave “to get some rest and sort out her personal matters before making up her mind.”

“But regrettably I could not change her decision,” Tung said, without making any mention of what the personal reasons might be.

Ip is a product of the highly skilled civil service that gradually took over from British appointees in the years before the handover, and which continues to manage the territory’s affairs.

But she became deeply unpopular for appearing indifferent to public concerns about the anti-subversion bill.

Independent legislator Margaret Ng described Ip as “very diligent and strong-minded.”

“Unfortunately, her style was completely wrong for this particular task and so it seems that it is inevitable that she would have to go,” Ng said. “The fundamental problem is not just one or two people, it’s the whole government’s attitude of what to do and how to legislate, what to legislate.”

Leung, a former investment banker, resigned hours after it was revealed that details of his car purchase had been placed in the hands of prosecutors.

He issued a short statement that made no mention of the auto scandal but said he had carried out his duties with “a clear conscience at all times.”

Leung’s resignation was effective immediately, while Ip is staying on until July 25.

AP-ES-07-16-03 1528EDT