Asia’s richest man is planning to sell his company’s flagship ParknShop supermarket chain in a deal that could fetch some US$2 billion. Hutchison Whampoa, which is controlled by Li Ka-shing, has hired Goldman Sachs Group and Merrill Lynch to handle the sale, to mixed feelings among local Hong Kong people. It’s a move that appears responsive to the democrats’ longstanding opposition to Li’s “monopoly” over Hongkongers’ livelihood (ranging from foodstuffs to electricity, mobile phones and housing), but now some worry that only a Chinese supermarket chain, under the China Resources Group, could afford to buy it.
If that’s the case, copies of the Apple Daily, which from time to time carries a Li-bashing news story, may be quietly taken off the shelf and replaced by Wen Wei Po and the People’s Daily. Fruits, milk formula cans and rice imported from Australia, Europe and New Zealand, and placed prominently on the shelves, could be stealthily replaced with made-in-China products, leaving Hong Kong housewives with little choice but to be patriotic in their shopping behavior. Exceptions could be those shops in South Bay and on The Peak, which serve an increasing number of nouveau riche mainlanders who prefer the status quo of food display arrangements remaining the same as before.
No wonder a petition has begun to spread online, with Hongkongers calling for Sainsbury’s, Tesco or Carrefour to bid for the chain. To the brief joy of the young generations, Japan’s Aeon Company Ltd was rumored to be one of the interested parties, but they announced the rumor was unfounded.
Could this be the first move of Li’s vote of no confidence in CY Leung, who has threatened to “slaughter a few big tigers” during his election campaign? If the selling of ParknShop is the first episode of a biblical money exodus orchestrated by the 85-year-old tycoon, the next institution to be ditched could be HK Electric. Each increase in the electricity bill has always been met with public uproar. This time Hong Kong people may have a chance to get to live with an old friend of the territory. Li Xiao-lin, the beautiful daughter of former premier Li Peng, is a managing director of the state electricity enterprise. Hong Kong people would then have a chance to apologize for their biased and deep detestation of the man who declared martial law in Beijing during May 1989, by properly paying their electrical bills. The new Li family might then pardon Hong Kong from an annual increase of the household electricity bill.
Meanwhile, the British government and the royal family have been welcoming Sir KS home with open arms, as his companies take over water and electricity in Britain. Former Governor Chris Patten was present at a recent donation ceremony at Oxford University. Hong Kong might wake up soon to feel nostalgia for the Ka-shing-monopolized good old days, once they are bombarded by the buzz of “The East Is Red” rather than “Greensleeves” as they push their trolleys through ParknShop. But it’s only a matter of time until future generations adjust to life in a Hong Kong which has swapped one Li for another.
Chip Tsao is a best-selling author, columnist and a former producer for the BBC. His columns have also appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.
