The View | Hong Kong tycoons put their money above all else, and may pay the price
By refusing to take sides during Occupy and staying loyal only to their own money, city's tycoons may be forced by Beijing to divest some assets
Whenever Li Ka-shing diversifies his holdings overseas it becomes the source of intense speculation about what it means and doesn't mean to Hong Kong. The HK$119 billion deal between Hutchison Whampoa's Three and O2 not only represents his biggest British investment, but is a sign of ominous post-Occupy times ahead for Hong Kong's tycoons.
The acquisition, alongside Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison's restructuring, also signals the end of the influential era of Hong Kong tycoons where a small group of families dominate the economy. They may proclaim their love for China, but they don't necessarily love or feel any loyalty towards the Communist Party. And nothing demonstrated this shortcoming like the challenge to government authority represented by Occupy.
The tycoons' individual and collective reaction to Occupy was strangely silent and awkward. Almost none of them spoke out in support of the central government. And those that did uttered lame remarks unsuitable for members of the ruling class. Even worse, expectations seemed out of synch. President Xi Jinping's meeting with the 40 tycoons in September before widespread protests was supposed to symbolise solidarity.
In exchange for allowing the tycoons to make vast amounts of money in Hong Kong and on the mainland, they were expected to make public declarations of pure loyalty - or at least aggressive denunciations of the students. Instead, in the midst of Occupy's fog of protest, their 40 most important community leaders suddenly became mute. Perhaps they feared the students' wrath. But, did they really expect the Hong Kong and central governments to protect their local businesses?
There's nothing like a crisis to discover your true friends and Beijing's tycoon friends revealed their true colours. But, since 1997 your average Hong Kong tycoon has held some awfully naive notions and misconceptions about their relationship with the central government. They thought an annual round of luxurious abalone banquets paid their dues. Today, Xi is one of the most orthodox modern communist leaders and cannot possibly be satisfied with a weak show of support.
Occupy has shown that Hong Kong's wealthy class have replaced the British as Hong Kong's colonial ruling group. Like mercantilists they mercilessly profiteer from the local population while offering little for the nation. Post Occupy, Beijing will rectify this by further stepping up its economic control of the city.
