HONG KONG - Who wants to kill
Hong Kong's democrats?
There have been plenty of arrests (and some convictions) after an alleged plot
to assassinate two prominent pro-democracy figures - Martin Lee Chu-ming,
founder of the Democratic Party, and billionaire publisher Jimmy Lai Chee-ying
- was uncovered by police last year. Across the border, in the mainland city of
Shenzhen, police even claim to have captured the "masterminds", but no one -
especially the would-be victims - is buying that story.
As life becomes increasingly uncomfortable for Hong Kong's pro-democracy
activists, the mystery of who was really behind the
alleged plot has grown deeper, and the real kingpin may never be found.
For some, the Chinese government is the obvious culprit. After all, the two
targets have been Beijing's most high-profile and implacable critics in this
city for many years.
Although the central government promised universal suffrage to Hong Kong within
50 years of the 1997 handover from British to Chinese rule, at this stage in
the city's development, its chief executive (currently Donald Tsang Yam-kuen)
is chosen by an 800-member election committee mostly hand-picked by Beijing.
While half of the Legislative Council (Legco), the city's 60-member
mini-parliament, is democratically elected, the other half emerges from the
shadows of so-called "functional constituencies", Hong Kong's political jargon
for special interests such as bankers, business moguls and insurance company
executives - most of whom kowtow to Beijing.
This schizophrenic political mix has generated constant conflict, and has led
to a paralysis of leadership in the city.
Lee and Lai have played key roles for the democracy camp in this ongoing
battle; Lee using his gift for rhetoric and popularity in the West and Lai
relying on his Next Media publishing empire, which spans Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Lai publishes one of the city's most popular Chinese-language daily newspapers,
Apple Daily, as well as the weekly Next Magazine, which has a large readership
both in Hong Kong and in Taiwan.
Of the two, Lee's opposition to Beijing goes back the farthest and probably
rankles it the most.
Considered the "father of democracy" in Hong Kong by his supporters, the
71-year-old barrister retired from Legco in 2008 after serving for 23 years.
Well before the handover, he had pushed the British for democracy in the city,
and in post-colonial Hong Kong he has been a persistent thorn in the side of
both Hong Kong and mainland leaders.
Appearing before a United States Congressional human-rights committee in the
wake of Beijing's military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in
Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, Lee compared Britain's future handover of
Hong Kong to China to handing over six million Jews to Nazi Germany.
More recently, in a 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal, Lee called on
then-US president George W Bush to use Beijing's hosting of the Summer Olympic
Games to pressure China over its dismal human-rights record.
For his efforts, Lee was branded a "national traitor" by the central government
and is banned from travel on the mainland.
Clearly, then, a Beijing-ordained assassination of Lee would be - pardon the
pun - overkill - it would only serve to galvanize anti-Beijing forces in Hong
Kong.
As for Lai, he has built his publishing empire on a reader-friendly combination
of racy tabloid journalism and relentless criticism of the Hong Kong and
central governments. He has also made a habit of embarrassing Hong Kong's
tycoons with unflattering stories - this has won him no friends among the
city's powerful business elite.
Lai, 60, once used his newspaper column to call the Chinese Communist Party "a
monopoly that charges a premium for lousy service". He routinely wields his
media clout to mock pro-Beijing politicians in Hong Kong, especially the chief
executive, and to encourage anti-government demonstrations. In 2003, Apple
Daily made a show of handing out cartoon stickers calling for the resignation
of then-chief executive Tung Chee-hwa. Days later, when 500,000 people took to
the streets in protest against Tung's rule, the paper distributed posters
urging the protestors on. Two years later, Tung did indeed resign.
A native of Guangdong province in southern China, who snuck illegally into Hong
Kong at the age of 12, Lai has only a primary school education and lacks the
grace and gravitas of the internationally known Lee. But he has far greater
influence on the masses, and his success has been stunning - especially when
one considers that the central government and Hong Kong's corporate class have
encouraged advertisers to boycott Next Media.
In 1996, Lai chose to sell his profitable clothing chain, Giordano, after his
attempts at expansion on the mainland were repeatedly blocked by Chinese
officials.
So there would be no tears shed in Beijing if Lai or Lee were to turn up dead.
But an assassination of these long-time enemies would only bring martyrdom and
a heap of trouble to the central government. Moreover, if Beijing wanted to get
rid of these two, why wait so long, after most of their damage has already been
done?
Such a move would be so needless that it must be ruled out. Crazy as it seems,
it is more likely that anti-Beijing forces were behind this plot, with the aim
of stirring up hatred of the central government in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Or it
could be that well-heeled, renegade patriots, stirred by a twisted loyalty to
the motherland, are the source. But who knows?
In the end, the only thing is that clear is that whoever planned the murders
was unaware of their consequences should the plot have succeeded. It is likely
that the real masterminds will never be revealed, and the mystery has led to
many conspiracy theories from both the pro- and anti-Beijing camps.
The intrigue starts with a question: Why did the Hong Kong police wait until
May of this year to reveal a plot that they say they uncovered last August,
when the first suspects were apprehended?
Huang Nanhua, 50, was arrested at a roadblock in the city on August 16, 2008,
after police discovered he was carrying a pistol, five bullets and personal
information about Lee and Lai. He has since been tried and jailed for 16 years
in Hong Kong. Ho Wai-kam, also 50, was imprisoned for three years for smuggling
the gun and bullets into the city from Shenzhen.
This month, however, mainland police announced that they had arrested two
alleged gangsters - Tung Nga-man, 67, and Yu Wai-shan, 63 - suspected of
masterminding the plot to kill Lee and Lai, and their trial began on July 22 in
Shenzhen. While eight others charged in the plot admitted their guilt,
according to lawyers involved in the trial, the two alleged kingpins pleaded
not guilty to attempted murder.
Adding to the mystery, no journalists - not even those representing state media
- have been allowed to attend the trial.
If the two alleged masterminds are convicted, the conundrum only deepens. Why
would two prominent triad figures go after Lee and Lai? Surely, they wouldn't
unless another party, probably never to be identified, offered them a great
deal of money to do so.
Also troubling, this is not the first time Hong Kong has experienced pulp
non-fiction of this sort.
In 2002, businessman Henry Lam Hon-lit was gunned down while having breakfast
in the city's famous Luk Yu Tea House. While the gunman, the supposed triad
kingpin and three other conspirators were convicted in this case, many
questions remain unanswered, and it is widely believed that the true mastermind
remains at large.
In another case involving a prominent democrat, Albert Ho Chun-yan, current
chairman of the Democratic Party, was attacked in August 2006 by three men
wielding baseball bats and a baton at a McDonald's in the city's Central
district. Ho was hospitalized with a broken nose and multiple other injuries.
As with the Lam shooting, this brazen attack occurred in broad daylight. Five
people with the usual triad links were arrested in connection with the assault,
but the city is still waiting to find out who planned it.
Ho has since recovered and his voice continues to be heard in Hong Kong. But
surely many other potential voices for democracy, fearful of a similar fate,
have been silenced by such plots.
Kent Ewing is a Hong Kong-based teacher and writer. He can be reached at
kewing@hkis.edu.hk
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