My Take | To the pan-dems, more diplomacy, please. To the DAB, some backbone

Among certain circles, Hong Kong is often described as "a spoilt child" while Beijing is called "grandpa", that is, the over-indulgent authority figure. So Li Ka-shing's use of the phrase to warn Hong Kong against going down a dangerous populist path is nothing new. The only difference is that he said it publicly, while many people who share the same or similar sentiments would never say it out loud.

There is no doubt that they have in mind the pan-democrats and their allies who thumb their noses at Beijing at every turn.

"Hong Kong is a spoilt child," Li reportedly said.

"Populism is rising in Hong Kong, and if this goes on, the city would look totally wrong in five to six years."

But by the same analogy, can we not call the pro-Beijing camp, such as the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, "daddy's girl"?

So perhaps a better question to ask is this: between the spoilt brat and the obedient child, are there any "adults" among us in our dealings with Beijing?