DON'T tell Burmese seaman Aung Aung Win the official Hongkong Government line that South China Sea piracy barely exists and that China's constant harassment of small ships leaving the territory poses little threat to Hongkong's reputation.
He'll spit on the ground and laugh in your face - bitterly. Seaman Aung is waiting on board a tiny Belize-registered freighter in Yau Ma Tei for his next instructions to sail to Vietnam, likely to be his third doomed bid to run the gauntlet of Chinese gunboats lying just off Hongkong.
Seaman Aung's ship Fairview has just returned to Hongkong after losing a cargo of 20 cars bound for Ho Chi Minh City after three months detention somewhere up the Pearl River. This time if he's lucky, the ship and crew will escape lightly.
Trigger-happy Chinese raiders may fire a few automatic rifle rounds into the hull and a few more in the air before locking the crew in the hold on a diet of congee and Pearl River water for a few more months.
''They know they (the Chinese) can pick on us for no reason and no one will do anything, even though we are leaving Hongkong legally and not even going to China - the Hongkong Government is powerless,'' Seaman Aung said.
''Last year I saw my captain chained to the ceiling and beaten in the stomach, so every time we leave we are very scared. At the same time, we are very lucky to be working out of Burma and we can't live without our US$300 (HK$2,300) each month, so we must take the risks for the owners.'' Yet now, after a solid six months of brazen raids by the Guangdong security forces, Government policy makers are still keeping well out of the issue despite mounting shipping industry and diplomatic concerns over the safety of the port of Hongkong.