Roll over and play dead in Hong Kong says Tien

There is a long tradition in powerful Chinese families of sending the less able into politics in order to stop them messing up the important stuff - the business. Bear this in mind as you read the extraordinary statements in today's South China Morning Post from James Tien, chairman of the supposedly pro-business Liberal Party:

Some might have dismissed as a "junket" the 12-day fact-finding tour by eight [Hong Kong] legislators to Dubai, Europe and the US to study exhibition and conferencing facilities. Not so one of the participants, tycoon and Liberal Party leader James Tien Pei-chun, who said the thousands of dollars taken from the public coffers to fund the trip would help Hong Kong save money in the longer term. "The conclusion we got from the study trip was that there is no future for Hong Kong to keep expanding our exhibition and conferencing facilities, as the ones we have are tiny compared to those in other countries. So, rather than spending more money to specialise in this area, we would do better to diversify our development," he said. So they learned nothing positive? "Come on, its still a conclusion if the conclusion says we can't do it here. One just can't get that conclusion by surfing websites.” So there.

Wrong - I would still dismiss it as a junket. What a moron!

For more reasoned views on the issue, see this piece in yesterday's Standard newspaper which quotes HKCEC's Cliff Wallace and AsiaWorld-Expo's Allen Ha.