Nation safe from 89-year-old

From HKFP, more on the court case in which ‘absconder’ Anna Kwok’s father is accused of dealing with funds linked to her. It seems Kwok Yin-sang took out insurance plans for Anna and her two siblings back in 1999. His counsel argues that, since she herself (up to last January) never signed anything with AIA to accept responsibility or ownership, the policy was never hers.

The Standard adds…

An insurance agent from AIA, surnamed Cheng, testified that the defendant sought to cancel his daughter’s policy in January.

Defense counsel Steven Kwan Man-wai played a voice message Cheng had sent to Kwok’s son in February, in which she said: “Your dad filled in Kwok Fung-yee’s name and signed it himself, because the real issue is that I can’t get a signature from her. I did explain to your father, but I’m not sure he understood.”

Kwan argued that when Kwok’s son reached adulthood, his policy receipt was also signed by the father to transfer the policyholder’s name — an arrangement that AIA had accepted. 

This, he said, demonstrated that a policyholder’s name does not automatically transfer from the parent to the insured child upon the child turning 18, meaning Kwok Yin-sang remained the policyholder rather than Anna Kwok.

However, AIA’s service director, surnamed Yan, told the court that the insurer’s system automatically changes the policyholder to the insured child once they reach 18, and that the policy’s cash value then belongs to that child.

So somewhere here there’s a national-security threat.

Also: an 89-year-old released on bail after being arrested on October 1 for allegedly acting with seditious intent, apparently in Causeway Bay MTR station.

Writing for Channel News Asia (part of Singapore’s state-owned media monopoly), former SCMP editor Wang Xiangwei asks whether Hong Kong is still Asia’s world city. He cites Mainland companies’ IPOs, the influx of (mostly Mainland) talent under various visa schemes, and an apparent recovery in (mostly Mainland) tourist arrivals…

This resurgence, however, feels lopsided on the ground. The streets are bustling, and the vibrancy is unmistakable. Tourism footfall is up, especially from mainland China, which accounted for nearly 80 per cent of Hong Kong’s visitor arrivals between January and August.

But boarded-up storefronts tell another story. High rents and competition from cheaper cross-border alternatives have hit parts of the retail and restaurant segments hard, even as other sectors, for example jewellery and watches typically favoured by tourists – thrive.

Beneath this uneven recovery looms a larger, strategic question: Is Hong Kong rebounding to reclaim its cherished mantle as Asia’s World City – a cosmopolitan powerhouse akin to New York or London – or is it morphing into China’s World City, a specialised outpost serving the mainland’s ambitions? 

…Perceptions have shifted dramatically; serious doubts now swirl about whether Hong Kong is devolving into “just another Chinese city”. This unease stems partly from the territory’s political elite, who have increasingly embraced mainland-style rhetoric and governance practices. 

…Hong Kong grapples with striking a delicate equilibrium between security and development, and between deeper integration into the mainland economy and its role as a regional hub for international business. 

…Apprehensions that Hong Kong is settling for a diminished role – a regional player on par with Dubai – rather than reclaiming its perch as a global financial titan rivalling New York and London. 

…[the city needs to be] indispensable to China’s modernisation and equally indispensable to global capital seeking exposure to China and Asia. 

To deliver that dual indispensability, Hong Kong must navigate these currents with nuance – honouring Beijing’s directives while safeguarding the openness that once defined it as Asia’s unrivalled world city.

A Kevin Yam post…

if HK is becoming like Tokyo and Seoul in financial markets terms, then that in itself should give those who say “HK is back” pause. Since the Japanese economic bubble burst well over 30 years ago, the Tokyo markets have, while remaining important in many ways, been in the doldrums, despite occasional bursts of optimism driven by the many false dawns that Japan’s economy had over these decades. All signs are now pointing to China starting to go through what Japan had gone through for decades. This should serve as a warning when looking at the sustainability of HK’s current financial markets recovery.

As for Singapore…

Why move to a place that was not yet HK but was becoming nearly as expensive as HK?

My humble opinion: Hong Kong could have been Asia’s equivalent of New York or London, if it had been competently run (focusing on housing and quality of life), and if it had retained its traditional freedoms (no press closures, pan-dem round-ups, Nat-Sec movie censorship, etc). Now it won’t be.

Photos from my former helper, in Lapaz, Bogo City in Cebu, Philippines. Although the recent earthquake hit hardest further north, causing dozens of deaths, houses in her township are now unsafe, so people are sleeping out in fields and a basketball court…