Just Saying | Tell me another: alternative facts about the return of Singapore’s military vehicles

I felt like I had stepped into the twilight zone this week when Hong Kong’s customs chief categorically denied that Beijing had any hand in the seizure of the Singaporean military’s precious armoured vehicles.

The nine Terrex troop carriers were impounded in transit two months ago at a container terminal – as they were being shipped back to Singapore following a joint military exercise in Taiwan.

Hong Kong to return seized armoured vehicles to Singapore

This sort of exchange between the city state and the island that Beijing regards as a renegade province has been going on for decades, uninterrupted. Frowned upon, but tolerated. So it was only natural for everyone to assume that there was a point Beijing wanted to make through the sudden precision bombing of this route by Hong Kong customs.

Watch: Events leading up to the seizure of Singaporean troop carriers

The underlying message in Beijing’s reaction to Tuesday’s announcement that Hong Kong would send the vehicles back to Singapore was as obvious as Chinese government-speak can get – that the issue of Taiwan was the core interest of China and no nation should have any official ties with the island.

But here in Hong Kong, we had to watch a bit of a Mickey Mouse show, as Commissioner of Customs and Excise Roy Tang Yun-kwong explained that the whole brouhaha was exclusively to do with a suspected breach of local import, export and transshipment law – which is fine in itself – and Beijing had no input whatsoever – which is a bit of a hard sell.

Hong Kong denies Beijing role in seizure of Singaporean troop carriers

When asked if his department had to report to Beijing on the progress and decisions made during the entire two-month investigation, Tang replied: “No, we are a Hong Kong law enforcement agency. The authority of the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department is based on Hong Kong law. No other institutions have been involved.”