Cathay Pacific is just the start; tycoons will have to pick a side in Hong Kong’s protest crisis

Have you noticed how our tycoons and big business groups have been running scared of the anti-government protest movement sweeping Hong Kong?

They’re terrified of doing or saying anything that may offend the protesters and bring a hysterical lynch mob to their doorstep. And their timidness is understandable, given the potential for instant anarchy across the city at the drop of a hat or helmet these days.

Top developer Sun Hung Kai Properties found out the hard way that even remaining silent or passive could still be detrimental for business, after riot police chased retreating protesters into its flagship shopping mall in Sha Tin last month.

Protesters then besieged the customer-service desk day after day, harassing frontline staff as they demanded to know why police had been allowed inside the mall. To cut a long story short, Sun Hung Kai ended up being so intimidated that it offers “safe spaces” these days in its commercial premises to anyone – protesters or bystanders – fleeing from tear gas and batons in the immediate vicinity.

That explains why another major developer, Wharf Real Estate Investment Company, put up notices at its shopping malls banning police from entering unless a crime was being committed inside.

The capitulation was enough to pacify protesters who cancelled plans to swarm Wharf’s showpiece Harbour City shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Wharf picked a side, and that’s what the rest of Hong Kong’s tycoons and big business groups are going to have to do, after Beijing upped the ante on Friday by ordering Cathay Pacific to stop aircrew who join or support illegal protests from operating flights to mainland China or using its airspace.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China singled out two specific cases of Cathay staff posing a “safety risk” with their pro-protest behaviour: a pilot who was charged with rioting and employees who leaked the flight schedule of a police soccer team from the city.

Cathay bosses, who retorted earlier that their 27,000 employees had “virtually every opinion on every issue” and management “wouldn’t dream of telling them what they have to think”, are singing a more compliant and contrite song now.

They know Beijing has the means to ground the airline. The writing is on the wall and they have read it loud and clear.

You can expect the same over the coming weeks and months, with Hong Kong’s lame-duck leaders at a complete loss as to how to end the crisis, and Beijing stepping in to mobilise its forces in the city for an anti-protest campaign.

While local tycoons and business leaders were unequivocal in their support for the government and their allegiance to Beijing during the Occupy protests, they’ve been deafeningly silent about this crisis, which makes 2014 look like a picnic.

Why? Because of the real risk that their shiny buildings will be trashed by protesters who have the means and motivation to attack more than 20 police stations in a single day without any fear of the law, never mind easy targets like shopping malls.

There’s also the fact that this civil unrest was triggered by the local government’s now-scrapped extradition bill rather than a direct provocation from Beijing, unlike in 2014 when the catalyst was the central government’s restrictive framework for political reform. The fat cats who run our economy felt obliged back then to do their duty and score brownie points with Beijing by speaking up.

This time, they’ve been able to get away so far with sitting on the fence and pretending it’s the government’s problem, not theirs.

Well, not any more. Money talks and their bottom line is at risk if they don’t toe Beijing’s bottom line. Cathay is just a taste of things to come.

Yonden Lhatoo is the chief news editor at the Post