Lai See | HSBC action to put hunger strikers out of their misery
HSBC has taken legal action against the pan-democrat hunger strikers encamped on the ground floor of its headquarters at 1 Queen's Road Central. It took out a summons earlier this week against the occupiers, seeking "to recover possession" of the premises. The occupiers were invited to attend the High Court on April 29 at "9.30 o'clock in the forenoon", as the summons quaintly puts it, for an order that "the plaintiff do recover possession … on the ground that it is entitled to possession and that the persons in occupation are in occupation without licence or consent". The hunger strike is in support of universal suffrage.
The bank's patience for people who use the ground floor of its headquarters as a protest venue appears to have atrophied significantly since the days of the pre-Benny Tai Occupy Central movement. That protest lasted about nine months before HSBC felt sufficiently emboldened to go to the courts for an order to get the occupiers to leave. But the pan-democrat hunger strikers have only been there for two weeks. Indeed, they say they will end the strike on Sunday, when lawmakers end their trip to Shanghai to discuss arrangements for the 2017 chief executive's election.
It seems hard to believe that the bank felt more sympathy for the anti-capitalist Occupy Central movement. It is possible that in assessing the risks, as bankers like to do, of legal action, it calculated that whereas it was uncertain of public support for the original "occupiers", it feels there is little support for the pan-democrat hunger strikers.
The prestigious Sohn Conference Foundation, which is to hold its inaugural Hong Kong conference in June, has announced that stars of the hedge fund world such as Carl Huttenlocher, Morgan Sze, Eashwar Krishnan and Seth Fischer will be speaking at the event. The decision to hold a conference in Hong Kong follows on from the success of the first event it held outside the United States, in London.
The Sohn conference is well known as the venue where prominent hedge fund managers occasionally give insights into their strategies. For its Hong Kong event, Sohn has linked with the Karen Leung Foundation, and proceeds will go to the charity.