Lai See | Is CY Leung being controlled by 'internal forces'?

We see that the government has obliquely answered the question in last Friday's column as to whether our chief executive, CY Leung, would take up his commitment as keynote speaker at the London Dinner this week.

The government announced on Friday afternoon that Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah would be visiting three European cities this week "to attend a number of trade promotional activities and meet with political and business leaders there". It simply says that Tsang would be speaking at the HKTDC annual dinner in London, rather than pointing out that he was going in Leung's place. At least there's a chance that the occasion will be graced by a halfway decent speech from Tsang.

The decision has the advantage of keeping some distance between Leung and Britain's Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority until they announce whether they intend to mount investigations in respect of the £4 million (HK$50 million) he was paid by Australian firm UGL when it bought DTZ. Although Leung might have reservations about fraternising with "external forces", the downside is that he will remain in Hong Kong to continue the mishandling of the demonstrations. There is thus the possibility that flagging spirits will be reignited by more media interviews, or further ill-considered initiatives. Perhaps we do him an injustice and he should be viewed as no more than a puppet being controlled by "internal forces".

Do you want to be a billionaire? If so, you would do well to attend the University of Pennsylvania if you believe the Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census. This is because 25 billionaires obtained their degree from the university. It was followed by Harvard (22), Yale (20), University of Southern California (16), and Princeton (14).