The View | Here’s the real question that should have been put to Li Ka-shing
The soft-ball approach in a recent television interview with the billionaire was a missed opportunity to delve into important issues
Someone once asked me what question I would like to ask Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing. I replied, “What have you done to my city?” He and his companies are responsible for much of the economic hardship levied by numerous cartels that plague and infest Hong Kong. Making life difficult for average people and raising the cost of doing business for those of us who are not landlords.
The consequence of living in our so called “freest economy in the world” is that the endgame of free for all, survival of the fittest competition without government intervention is a debilitating concentration of wealth and power that cripples economic development beyond the status quo.
Some version of strong and empowered socialism is needed in Hong Kong to correct abuses by tycoons
From squeezing obscene profits out of the property market where Cheung Kong’s 200 square foot flats are sold as places where actual families are supposed to live in with rooms you can barely fit a single sized mattress into, to controlling (along with Jardine Matheson) the city’s grocery business, to the container ports and electricity, his Cheung Kong Group controls too much of the local economy.
In Hong Kong, the ardent advocates of our supposedly business oriented, pro-capitalist society think that it represents a unique sort of healthy subculture- a forgotten world beyond the clutches of the kind of government meddling and welfare society dead hand that plagues modern times.
That makes Li’s recent interview on Bloomberg TV seem like a public relations exercise anchored in a more nostalgic time when Li was revered by Hong Kong people as “Superman”, a hometown capitalist hero. Today, the peoples’ perception is what is good for Cheung Kong simply must be bad for Hong Kong.
Instead, Li is asked (yet again) about his famous preference for inexpensive watches. That self-deprecating, comedy routine was quaint and endearing- back in 1989. But, more serious questions should be asked. Hong Kong is not only mired in an economic slowdown, but facing challenges where Li’s business practises contribute to economic sclerosis. An illusion of good journalism is to only ask questions you know the answers to.