DAB won't wear tease shirt (but it's not political)

It wasn't political, the customs officers said as they seized T-shirts the League of Social Democrats was selling that mock a rival party.

It wasn't political, said the head of that rival, the DAB, of its decision to report the league for using the party's logo without authorisation.

It certainly was political, the league said of the seizure on copyright grounds of 100 T-shirts yesterday from its stall at the Lunar New Year fair in Victoria Park.

'The DAB feels offended because we have made a sharp point which is so right to the point that it hurts them,' league chairman Andrew To Kwan-hang said.

The T-shirt features the logo of the DAB with the Chinese characters for propriety, righteousness and integrity - three of the four major virtues in Chinese culture. The fourth is a sense of shame, and the absence of that character from the shirt is a subtle way of saying the party 'has no shame'. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong is the biggest Beijing-loyalist party and a government ally.

The shirt was designed by some fans of the league, To said, and, with a price of HK$60, had been popular with visitors to the fair. Around 1,000 had been bought since they went on sale on Tuesday. Only around 100 were left by the time customs officers staged their raid.