My Take | Journalist Victor Mallet made himself unwelcome in Hong Kong
The acting head of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club and his allies took a cavalier view of China’s concerns about Hong Kong independence in the name of free speech
Amid the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael in Florida, the US state’s Republican senator in Washington, Marco Rubio, still finds time to worry about a British journalist who didn’t get his work visa renewed in Hong Kong. His concern for our welfare is almost touching.
Well, except the guy is a one-trick pony, who uses every political controversy, big or small, in Hong Kong to play his anti-China card. His nomination of young activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung for the Nobel Peace Prize was at least amusing; otherwise his routines are getting tiresome.
Now, I wish Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor would grow a spine and tell little Marco, a moniker bestowed on him by US President Donald Trump, to stuff it. Stand your ground, Carrie, that’s the name of a law in Florida.
What do you do when you have an unwelcome guest in your home? You send him packing. That’s what Hong Kong did with Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet. By not renewing his work visa, we did it in the politest and most civilised manner possible.
No one has accused Mallet of breaking any law. As acting head of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, he invited Hong Kong National Party chief Andy Chan Ho-tin to expound on separatism. The party had not been banned then, so the invitation was perfectly legal.