Robert Carroll
Hong Kong and Asia’s richest man Li Ka-shing has finally been officially described accurately in China: a profit-only motivated man, and no patriot. The final straw was when he moved his flagship company to an offshore tax haven, the Cayman Islands. I have long asserted that the man, along with other tycoons here, are not out to serve Hong Kong, or their country’s best interests, but their own economic interests.
Moving on to President Xi Jinping’s successful state visit to Britain. The Chinese government’s media machine was fulsome in emphasizing what the two nations had in common, and talked of shared interests. There did seem, however, to be one glaring admission. Is Hong Kong not common ground? Its institutions are based on British organizations, that – combined with Hong Kongers hard work, and economic advantages of proximity with China – have seen a great success story unfold. Do mainland Chinese companies not profit hugely, and notably, State Owned Enterprises, from IPOs here. This under systems and rules fashioned in earlier times in London and imported to this part of China.
Wasn’t this great financial center, so beneficial to the mainland for decades and among a handful in the world of this dimension? Was it not created under British common law and backed by British-modelled foundations such as the civil service and the judiciary, as well as schools and universities? Is that not a shared and laudable heritage?
Moving on, the visit was beneficial to both sides. I am sure that, not just the Chinese President and First Lady, but the whole country must have felt a swell of pride at the most regal of receptions and fanfare of one red carpet event after another. And to give more face, the color red was frequently on display in the form of soldiers’ uniforms to ladies of the highest standing. To meet the state leader and his wife, both and the foreign secretary’s wife and the Duchess of Cambridge wore red.
However something puzzling was going on with China Daily’s take on the trip. While it naturally trumpeted the success of Xi Jinping’s visit to Britain, it also highlighted common ground in 20 captioned photos. Fair enough, it was a bit light-hearted face-giving but one caption stood out as rather odd: that both countries and have had great queens and still do!
Talking of royalty, and on another note, I wonder why a Magna Carta exhibition in China was canceled just before the visit? An agreement eight hundred years old between the English king and a group of barons, limiting the sovereign’s power, is sensitive? Was it the parts about protection against illegal imprisonment, efficient justice as well as subjecting the agreement to a council? Surely China’s leadership can’t be concerned that this ancient treaty is too advanced for the world’s second power? That unwelcome comparisons could be made between a negotiated settlement between a rebel faction of aristocrats and the state leader, and today’s social and political climate on the mainland?
But back to Hong Kong. Financial secretary John Tsang is stirring it up yet again. He is complaining about dishwashers being paid HKD12,000 a month. That’s marginally over the last official poverty line, which is set at below median income level. In his great wisdom he says that these wages are putting SMEs out of business. I am not the first to say this, and I won’t be the last. It’s not the wages bill that’s doing the real damage. To paraphrase Bill Clinton famous dictum: It’s the rent stupid.
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