SCMP highlights: 7 of this week’s most read stories
- From a Chinese comedy troupe being fined to the grievances of Hong Kong’s pilots, here are a few highlights from SCMP’s recent reporting
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues.
1. Chinese comedy troupe hit with US$2 million penalty for making jokes about PLA
A Chinese entertainment group has been fined and had performances in the capital suspended after a stand-up comic made fun of the People’s Liberation Army. The group was ordered by a Beijing regulator to forfeit 1.3 million yuan (US$186,000) in income from performances in the capital and fined 13 million yuan (US$1.9 million). The PLA’s Western Theatre Command ground forces also weighed in, criticising the comic Li Haoshi’s words as “shameless remarks”.
Real feelings of provocation, insult and outrage
The jokes had made fun of a popular PLA slogan about winning battles according to reports on social media, comparing it with two dogs chasing a squirrel.
2. Why are Cathay Pacific pilots so unhappy?
Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has lost more than half of its senior pilots since late 2019, with the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association saying the airline had 3,840 pilots in total in 2019 but only 2,417 last month. With their pay and benefits slashed, pilots “are very frustrated and morale is very low”, association chairman Paul Weatherilt said. A senior pilot’s wife told SCMP that her husband’s monthly income could fluctuate by 50 per cent under the new pay system, adding her husband suffered “a complete breakdown, like nervous exhaustion” last year.
3. Insurgents, drugs — and tourists
At the Malaysia-Thailand border, multiple checkpoints and border posts do little to deter insurgents and traffickers of drugs and people from either side moving across virtually at will. One traveller named Siti said she was detained on arrival at Don Mueang airport due to a bureaucratic blunder regarding her border crossing three months prior and was subsequently forced to spend a night in an immigration detention centre in Bangkok. “I was mistreated like a criminal, left bewildered and stripped of my rights and dignity,” she said.
4. She crossed Jackie Chan: how Anita Yuen, the Audrey Hepburn of Hong Kong, made her mark
Hong Kong actress Anita Yuen Wing-yee was a little confused by her win at the 1990 Miss Hong Kong pageant, telling SCMP in 1994 that she “never thought of [her]self as beautiful”. Nevertheless, this pageant win led to a contract with broadcaster TVB and a successful acting career afterward. She often portrayed independent, forthright women in early 1990s films like He’s a Woman, She’s a Man and C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri. One incident during the filming of Jackie Chan’s Thunderbolt in which she reportedly left the set and flew home, even though Chan had requested she stay, led to a long-running feud that was only resolved two decades later.
5. Divorce proceedings shed light on husband’s hidden US$14 million
A Chinese woman, identified by the pseudonym Yu Hong, was shocked when informed that her ex-husband, identified as Qin Lan, had concealed assets worth more than 100 million yuan (US$14 million) from her for two decades. The court found that Qin had gifted 18 commercial properties he owned to his daughter from a previous marriage to avoid handing over a share to Yu. In court, Qin argued that Yu had nothing to do with his wealth.
I built my wealth. She is just a housewife who didn’t work
Knowledge of her husband’s hidden assets spurred Yu to apply for a divorce six months after the court rejected her previous divorce application. Her second application was granted.
6. US-China military encounter near Hong Kong, a day before January 6 Capitol riot, revealed
China and the US became locked in an intense military confrontation near Hong Kong in early 2021, prompting the US to destroy its own floating sonars to prevent them from falling into Beijing’s hands. The revelation is contained in the first open report on the January 5 incident — which saw one anti-submarine plane fly as close as 150km (93 miles) from Hong Kong — released by a team of Chinese military scientists. The team also said the US’ activities were a severe challenge to China’s national security.
7. Despite record-high unemployment, young Chinese are not afraid to speak out at work
When 22-year-old Melody Yan quit her job at a Chinese electric vehicle company, she sent a 2,000-word email to the head of the company, criticising their operational inefficiencies, support — or lack thereof — and levying accusations that her supervisor sexually harassed her. “I had to let them know about their failures,” she said. Even though China’s unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-olds hit a record high of 20.4 per cent last month — meaning one of every five young adults is jobless — a growing number of young Chinese workers are bent on shattering the silence surrounding toxic work cultures where working unpaid or excessive overtime has long been normalised.
