Lai See | Laura Cha joins CY Leung school of political analysis

Laura Cha Shih May-lung appears to have joined the Leung Chun-ying school of political analysis with her recent comments about political reform and slavery.

The comments were made at a Trade Development Council event in Paris, although it's not clear if it was a open forum or a press briefing. Regardless, they are absurd beyond belief - historically incorrect and a wildly inept analogy. Does she really believe that the dispute about political reform can usefully be compared to giving the vote to emancipated black slaves in the US?

As with Leung's ill-considered comments about the poor, she has infuriated many in Hong Kong and an online petition on the matter has attracted more than 5,000 signatures. Like Leung, she has had to eat humble pie and issue a statement saying she regretted the remarks.

HSBC must be feeling some aggravation, not to say embarrassment, as she has been widely referred to as a "HSBC board director". More specifically, she is non-executive deputy chairman of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, the Asia-Pacific subsidiary of HSBC Holdings, of which she is also a non-executive director.

Recently, David Eldon, who is the non-executive chairman of HSBC Bank Middle East and HSBC Bank Oman, suggested on his widely read blog that Leung's UGL payments might be a way to remove an "unpopular official". HSBC issued a statement saying, "Eldon was commenting as a private individual and the bank would like to clarify his comments do not in any way reflect the view of HSBC Group".

However, this time HSBC has been more restrained. Spokesman Gareth Hewett said: "We have not commented on Occupy Central and the remarks you mention. Laura is a non-executive director on a number of boards in the city and is a member of the HKSAR Executive Council."

Cha's many other positions include being the head of the Financial Services Development Council and a director of China Telecom and Unilever. Given the furore she has created with the crass comments, it will be interesting to see if she steps down from any of these positions. If she had been on the board of a big US bank, her position would be very wobbly.