No room for protests at Cathay

The chief executive of Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways has warned there will be “disciplinary consequences” for employees involved in “illegal protests”, as the airline joins a slate of businesses that have appeased and apologised to China in recent days.

Companies from luxury fashion brands to bubble tea shops have been under pressure to distance themselves from protesters and declare their support for the ruling Communist Party’s position on Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific CEO Rupert Hogg said in the memo to employees that the company has a “zero tolerance approach to illegal activities” and that those “who support or participate in illegal protests” face consequences that “may include termination of employment”.

Last Friday, China’s civil aviation authority announced that Cathay Pacific employees who “support or take part in illegal protests, violent actions, or overly radical behaviour” are banned from staffing flights to mainland China.

Luxury fashion brands Givenchy, Versace and Coach have apologised after Chinese social media users lambasted the companies for selling T-shirts which listed Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as their own countries. Officially Hong Kong and Macao are classified as “special administrative regions”. Taiwan split from the mainland during a civil war in 1949, though the Communist Party claims the island as part of its territory and maintains that “reunification” is inevitable.

Coach said said it was “deeply sorry for the damage caused to our consumers’ feelings” by “major mistakes” with some T-shirts, while Versace said it “destroyed” offending T-shirts and that “We love China and resolutely respect the national sovereignty of Chinese territory”. —AP