Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing slated in state media as unpatriotic

Asia’s richest man, the Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, once a “superman” to mainland would-be entrepreneurs, is coming under pressure these days from Beijing’s state-run media for not loving the motherland enough.

Mr Li is now being portrayed as a “big tiger”, which has negative connotations as it paints him as a speculator.

The finance section of Sina.com, in a commentary, described him as “the really big tiger of the Chinese real estate sector” – a loaded term, because President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign has pledged to wipe out the corrupt “tigers and flies” and recent victims of the campaign, including former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, have been described as “tigers”.

Worth about €22 billion personally by some estimates, Li is the quintessential Hong Kong entrepreneur and a legend in the territory. His empire spans the property firm Cheung Kong Holdings and conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, with global assets also including telecoms, utilities, ports and retail.

Born in 1928, he fled to Hong Kong from Guangdong province during the second World War, and his father died of tuberculosis during the Japanese invasion when he was 14.

In his early life he was a dishwasher, a watch-strap factory worker, and a salesman, then a plastic flower and toy manufacturer. His rise to riches has proven inspirational to many on the mainland and he is a popular figure across the border from Hong Kong too.

Soured relations

However, recent weeks have seen a souring of relations, as pointed out by George Chen in the

South China Morning Post

.

“If it was just one or two articles complaining about Li’s exit, then he may have little to worry about.

"But from Global Times to Sina, it looks more like a well-organised media campaign to announce the end of an era. If Li doesn't need China any more, Beijing doesn't need to rely on Li alone for Hong Kong affairs. Indeed, one era is over," Chen wrote.

He recently moved his two main companies to the Cayman Islands, which is seen as a major rejection in mainland China, and prompted the Global Times newspaper, published by the same group that publishes the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily, to say his move out of China was misguided.

“Li’s investment is a drop in the ocean compared to the huge size of the Chinese economy. There have been numerous pessimistic predictions about China, but they all proved to deviate from reality,” it said.

It also said that a host of new entrepreneurs were coming who would overtake Mr Li, including the Alibaba chief Jack Ma – who met Irish President Michael D Higgins last month – and the Wanda property company chief Wang Jianlin.

“Li has contributed his fair share to China’s reform and opening up, though he also benefited tremendously from the process. He is worthy of the nickname “Superman,” but he may not be suitable as a bellwether for the future. We should now look to other benchmarks,” it said.

Irish activities

In recent months he has been linked to buying the Dublin-based aircraft leasing group, Awas Aviation Capital.

"Li has created miracles for his generation, but the younger generation of Jack Ma may be more capable of catching up with the changes happening in China and possess the ability to make adventurous interactions," the Global Times editorial said.