HK’s wealthiest man gives $128M to local businesses
HONG Kong’s wealthiest man will donate HK$1 billion (US$128 million) to local businesses, his foundation said on Friday, as Asia’s oncecalm financial hub was roiled by fresh protests.
Li Ka-shing’s announcement came shortly before the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam announced a law banning face masks in public, the latest move from a government that has struggled to control four months of increasingly violent pro-democracy demonstrations.
The 91-year-old billionaire said small and medium-sized businesses would benefit from the fund, which will be distributed in partnership with the government.
It comes as Hong Kong’s economy faces “unprecedented challenges”, Li’s foundation said in a statement.
This summer’s protests, sparked by rising public anger towards Beijing’s rule, has battered the economy which was already strugling with the Sino-US trade war fallout.
Figures released this month showed retail sales declined by a record 23 per cent year-onyear in August, compounding an 11.5 per cent slump the month before.
Li (pictured, AFP) was criticised by China’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission last month“for harbouring criminality” after he published a series of prominent adverts advocating for peace.
Comments from him at the time also appeared to suggest he felt the mainly young protesters had some legitimate grievances.
Li’s remarks contrasted starkly with many fellow tycoons who had published fullthroated support for the city’s embattled pro-Beijing leaders.
But he later said his remarks had been misinterpreted, and condemned any actions that would violate the city’s rule of law.
The billionaire is among the hugely influential coterie of Hong Kong’s twentieth-century oligarchs.
He invest invested heav ily in China in i n t he 1990s, init tia ia lly l ly courting co Beijing’s Commu Communist leaders but later en enduring thorny perio periods af ter his mo moves to offload major mainland propert y i n v e s t ment s irked Chinese crit ics.