‘Shanghai Boy’ and the high-profile Hong Kong press conference that never was
High-profile event called by alleged triad leader Kwok Wing-hung scrapped after ‘something happened’
As press conferences go, this was not run of the mill. Reporters and photographers turned up in full force. Police were there too – in plain clothes, of course.
Depending on who you choose to believe, the focus of the attention was either a controversial businessman, a big player in what is often referred to as the underworld, or an alleged triad boss known as “ Shanghai Boy”.
READ MORE: Alleged Hong Kong triad leader punched in face at Peninsula hotel while having tea
Regardless, five minutes after the press conference called by Kwok Wing-hung in a plush Wan Chai tower was due to start at lunchtime yesterday, it was off.
Kwok, 57, who is neither a boy nor from Shanghai, failed to show and the waiting media pack had to make do with an explanation from his reporter-turned PR man, Ben Lam Tsz -pan, that “something” had happened to prevent his boss from showing up.
Pre-publicity material claimed Kwok – subject of a much-publicised “attack” in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui this month which left him requiring hospital treatment – would respond to “unfounded” allegations against him.
Last night, a promised statement explaining the reasons for the abortive press conference had not materialised. And the whereabouts of the man who came to public prominence for attending a dinner with Leung Chun-ying’ s 2012 election campaign managers and supporters, were unclear.