Lai See | Murray Building units not for sale: Cheung Kong please note

In its preparations for selling off the Murray Building as a hotel, the government appears to have gone out of its way to make the point that there is no chance of developers being able to redevelop the site and then sell off individual units.

This is, it will be recalled, what Cheung Kong tried to do by setting up a scheme to sell off 360 units at the Apex Horizon Hotel in Kwai Chung, as a way of avoiding the payment of the new stamp duty.

Clause 30 of the tender documents notes that the purchaser shall not "assign, mortgage, charge, underlet, part with possession of or otherwise dispose of the lot or any part thereof or any interest therein or any building or part of any building thereon, or grant any licence or right whatsoever to use or occupy or to have possession of the lot or any part thereof or any building or part of any building thereon, whether by way of direct or indirect reservation, the grant of any right of first refusal, option or any other method, arrangement or document of any description, or enter into any agreement so to do."

There is more of this, but you get the idea. Though strangely, there are certain conditions under which the site can be used for two or more hotels.

Edward Chin is an unusual man. Aside from owning a Harley-Davidson motorbike, which he uses to ride for charity, he runs a hedge fund. But there is more. He is one of what the local Chinese press refer to as one of the 10 martyrs of the Occupy Central Movement started by Benny Tai Yiu-ting.