Mr. Shangkong | From 'superman' to 'big tiger', Li Ka-shing loses favour with Beijing

It's official. Li Ka-shing is no longer Beijing's favourite businessman in Hong Kong.

Just a week after Li, Hong Kong's richest man and widely believed to have particularly good relations with former president Jiang Zemin, announced an overhaul of his empire, including re-registering his two new flagship groups abroad, mainland media launched a new round of war of words on Li.

Li's relationship with the mainland media has been more or less in trouble in recent years since he began to sell property assets in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Some mainland media began to portray Li as a speculator and even warned him that he should balance his business vision and his love for the motherland.

The Global Times, an influential sister newspaper of the People's Daily, the most authoritative mouthpiece of the Communist Party, ran an editorial last week taking a clear stance on Li, saying he is no longer an ideal role model for Chinese people. Instead, we should praise and learn more from businessmen from the younger generation like tech tycoons Jack Ma Yun of Alibaba and Lei Jun of Xiaomi.

"In comparison to the huge size of the Chinese economy, Li Ka-shing's total investment in China is now like a drop in a big ocean," the Global Times said in its editorial.

A signed commentary by a mainland columnist who described Li as a "big tiger in the property market" was published on Sina.com, China's top portal, and went viral on mainland social media. Those who follow Chinese politics will know "big tiger" is a term that became popular since Xi Jinping took power and began a nationwide anti-corruption drive against top-level corrupt officials and businessmen.