David Tang Vocalizes his Discontent

Sir David Tang voiced his discontent of the Leung administration at the FCC

Sir David Tang has been busy designing high-end restaurants and luxury products for his store Tang Tang Tang Tang, but he's also found time to criticize Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and his administration for not representing the interests of the Hong Kong people.

At the Foreign Correspondents' Club, Tang gave a rare but fiery speech stating how the city is in a sad state of affairs, from how the Umbrella Movement was handled, to the stalemate in the Legislative Council.

While he was sympathetic with the students and members of the public who protested in the fall of 2014, Tang said the government made a series of missteps, most crucially that Leung did not meet with the students.

Tang says even Li Peng met with Wu'er Kaixi in 1989

"Throughout the 'Umbrella Movement' our chief executive steadfastly refused to meet the protesters. We should remember that even Li Peng -- even Li Peng, the hardcore, hardline Chinese premier at the time -- received Wu'er Kaixi, and, what's more, in full view of national television."

That is definitely a stinging indictment of Leung, though funny Tang should point this out almost a year and a half later...

The businessman loves to use big words to show off his expansive vocabulary which is amusing to hear in his strong British accent. Perhaps the best quote was of him describing Leung a leader who was not strong enough and turn himself into "a puppet on a string dancing obsequiously to the tunes and echoes of Zhongnanhai".

Touche.

In the beginning of his speech, Tang complained about Leung's 2016 policy address on how idealistic it was.

"Whoever wrote that for the chief executive... must be a comedian or perhaps a monkey who accidentally typed up those words on a typewriter," he said.

Tang described Leung as a "puppet" dancing to Zhongnanhai

The policy address -- which Tang forced himself to read twice -- mentions "One Belt, One Road" 50 times.

"Quite apart from the embarrassing unctuousness towards the Chinese president, what on earth would an ordinary resident of Hong Kong care or understand about 'One Belt, One Road'?"

He questioned whether any Hong Kong tycoon would be able to name even two countries in the supposed silk road.

As for bookseller Lee Po, Tang said it was quite sure that someone high up had arranged for Lee to be moved onto the mainland, and that it was not a good sign for people to be disappearing.

Tang claimed of knowing at least two businessmen who refused to go to the mainland to assist in criminal investigations, insisting the authorities come to Hong Kong instead to question them.

But did Lee have a choice in the matter? We have yet to find out.

Nevertheless, it was very refreshing to have Tang speak out what we have all been thinking, despite him sounding pompous at times.

It is evident through his speech that the entrepreneur and restaurateur cares deeply about Hong Kong and hopes things will get better through reconciliation and talks.

Now if only people will heed his advice...

Or should we start campaigning for Tang for CE?

Lighting Candles 25 Years On

The Goddess of Democracy before the vigil began

I just came back from the candlelight vigil in Victoria Park to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Organizers say over 180,000 attended, while police say 99,500...

Unlike last year when we had a torrential downpour halfway through, tonight there were clear skies though quite hot and humid.

Makeshift memorial for Li Wangyang below

However, no one seemed to complain as they filed into the football pitches, the earliest ones coming at 5.30pm. YTSL, two other friends and I arrived after 6pm and sat pretty much in the same area as last year, to the right of the temporary memorial tombstone.

It also had a small picture of Li Wangyang the human rights activist who was found hanged in a hospital room and authorities claimed he had committed suicide. The Goddess of Democracy was also there, and she seemed to have welcomed the LGBT community with a rainbow tied around her wrist as well as a blue ribbon for press freedom and editor Kevin Lau Chun-to.

As a result this candlelight vigil gains more significance each year.

When it was finally 8pm participants were invited to light candles and begin the ceremony that included paying respects to the dead as many of their names were read out, laying a wreath at the makeshift tombstone and singing the same songs, over and over.

There was a recording from the Tiananmen Mothers, thanking us in Hong Kong for remembering the victims, as well as from several of the student leaders from 1989 such as Wang Dan, Wu'er Kaixi, Wang Juntao and Lv Jinghua.

Raising candles to remember the dead

Perhaps the surprise of the evening was seeing human rights lawyer Teng Biao come on stage to speak. He has defended the rights of HIV victims, Tibetan freedom fighters, signed Charter 08 and counselled blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng.

I thought someone like him would probably be under house arrest or whisked away by the authorities for an impromptu "holiday", but here he was in Hong Kong telling the crowd that the Chinese government continued its crackdown on dissidents and those who defended human rights.

"But as Hong Kong people say: 'You can't kill us all'," he chanted and the audience echoed Teng. He then urged people to join the Occupy Central movement in the pursuit of democratic reform. He became more worked up and emotional, probably because he was so thrilled to be able to say whatever he wanted in Hong Kong!

Teng later told local media he hoped one day the freedom to protest would happen in China, but that many human rights activists had sacrificed their lives to pursue this right.

He also added the authorities are not just cracking down on activists for stability, but cleansing as well, showing the deep insecurities of the government when it comes to its authoritarian grip over the country. "June 4 cannot be rehabilitated until China becomes a democracy," he said.

The last part of the ceremony became more political as Lee Cheuk-yan, organizer of the event and chairman of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China gave a speech.

Organizers say over 180,000 attended tonight's vigil

He equated what the students did 25 years ago to the Occupy Central movement, and how Hong Kong people must stand up and defend the right to have a say in the process of determining what form universal suffrage will have in the city.

However will people turn up on July 1 to literally occupy the streets in Central will happen or not is another matter, but it seemed telling that as he was trying to rally people to show up less than a month from now, the crowds were dispersing the park.

For me today was also a reminder of what Tiananmen Square was like five years ago when I tried to mark the 20th anniversary. It was completely cordoned off and the public couldn't even cross the road to get to the square. Security was crawling everywhere so there wasn't anything we could do except stand there for a bit and then leave.

Today is also the first anniversary of my friend Diao Ying's death. I was thinking about how she diligently finished her work and then got home, climbed to the roof of the apartment building and jumped.

I still don't know exactly why she did that, but miss her terribly and can only hope that she is in a better place. 

Pleading for Extradition

Wuer Kaixi tried again unsuccessfully to get himself extradited back to China

Former Tiananmen Square activist Wuer Kaixi is desperate to see his parents in China.

He has been in exile since 1989 and made a new life for himself in Taiwan, married well and gained weight too.

The "second most-wanted man" is wanted for "conspiracy to subvert" and Wuer tried to get himself arrested and deported back to the mainland, but was foiled again today.

He flew from Taiwan to Hong Kong and was detained at Chek Lap Kok airport for several hours, hoping he would be arrested by the police and then extradited so that he could at least see his ailing parents behind bars.

"I hope to be [re]united with them while they are still alive, even if it mean the reunion would take place behind a glass wall," he said. "I am transiting from [Hong Kong] because it is my last resort," he said in a written statement.

"What I am doing now is a result of the [mainland] government's absurd act of ordering my arrest, while at the same time refusing to allow me to return."

After four hours of interrogation, immigration officers deported him back to Taiwan.

Wuer said that a denial by the Hong Kong government to help him meant they did not accept with Beijing's official position.

"If that is so," he added, "I appreciate it... and I then request the Hong Kong government to stop denying [other] Chinese dissidents the right to enter."

Wuer's lawyer Lam Yiu-keung criticized the Immigration Department for not paying attention to his client's request.

"He never requested entry and had no intention of entering Hong Kong," says Lam. "He simply wanted to convey a message to the Hong Kong government to inform the [liaison office] of his intentions."

Wuer has previously tried unsuccessfully to get himself arrested in Macau, Japan and the United States. The Chinese government does not want to let Wuer have his way even though it would probably love to have him in prison.

Interestingly in 2004 he was allowed into Hong Kong to attend the funeral of Cantopop diva Anita Mui Yim-fong, but not to pay his respects for democratic leader Szeto Wah in 2011, along with fellow dissident Wang Dan.

Perhaps the next step is for Wuer to fly directly into China and that would be unknown territory in terms of how he would be treated. Would he be willing to dare to go that far?

With the 25th anniversary of June 4 coming up next year and a lot of media attention around it, we wonder if he will pull that stunt off.