How Hongkonger’s herbal soup shakedown in Beijing helps explain why local businessmen fear extradition to the mainland

Complaint over bowl of soup ends up costing restaurant owner more than HK$110,000 in bribes and pay offs in mainland

Soup saga shows why some veteran Hong Kong entrepreneurs are leery of extradition bill and mainland’s business culture

Reading Time:4 minutes

Michael Tien, a National People’s Congress delegate from Hong Kong, in March. He said many complaints about ‘red packets’ had been settled by the NPC. Photo: Simon Song

Published: 9:00am, 14 Jul 2019Updated: 3:20pm, 21 Jul 2019

It all started with a bowl of traditional Chinese herbal soup served by a Hong Kong entrepreneur at his restaurant in Beijing.

But that simple soup ended up costing him nearly 100,000 yuan (US$14,533) after he found himself trapped in a predicament with only one way out: to offer “red packets” – meaning cash bribes – to mainland officials.

It’s an all-too-typical story for veteran Hong Kong businessmen who agreed that kickbacks, pay offs and dubious payments remain a part of business culture on the mainland.

The threat of similar situations is another worrying aspect of the government’s suspended extradition bill, which stirred up fear among Hongkongers who run businesses across the border.

The bill, which was suspended on June 15, would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong lacks an extradition agreement, notably mainland China.

The nightmare over the herbal soup so traumatised restaurant owner Nic Chan – not his real name – that he is considering returning to Hong Kong and escaping the uncomfortable, hidden rules that are part of doing business in the mainland.

Felix Chung in Admiralty in 2018. Chung said lawmakers tried in vain to have bribery removed from the offences covered by the suspended extradition bill. Photo: Edward Wong

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