Doomsday Doctor left Communication Bank due to regime's silencing

LAW Ka Chung: Can't even discuss capital flight

(15 Nov) "Doomsday Doctor of Hong Kong" LAW Ka Chung suddenly left China's Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) which he served for over 14 years.  He didn't want to discuss his reasons for leaving.  However, as a fellow worker at Central, I couldn't help but feel lost about the changes in social environment that keep on eroding the core values of our financial centre.  He feels that a lot of sensitive economic data cannot be disclosed any more.  "It used to be the case that, as long as you didn't talk about the yellow-ribbon issues or Hong Kong independence, you were allowed to say anything you want.  Now many people can't or don't dare to even talk about things like capital flight.

Even though I didn't bring my political stance into my work, I still needed to face overboard interference imposed by the regime on the industry and the trend of diminishing freedom of speech.  Law said his friends from the same industry all felt the same way when they last met.  "If we draw a conclusion from the standpoint of the protest and it is different from the government's conclusion, they (the higher-up) still won't like it.  It is a complete "dictatorship."

"Government wants to manipulate the market"

Aside from political events, even the capital flow that is directly related to the whole market movement has become a taboo.  The devaluation of Chinese dollar, as well as the poor performance of China's economy, are particularly unspeakable.  LAW Ka Chung has been surprised that, in addition to his former employer, a group of Chinese banks have been barred from taking reporter interviews.  Foreign banks can't predict whether China will raise interest.  "Freedom of speech" has been tightening, "It was then I understood why I had to go.  My media exposure was too much."

Law said this kind of unreasonable information control has happened before during Occupy Central movement.  However, just because people don't talk about it doesn't mean nothing happened.  "Just like Occupy Central, the whole world knew about it."  "What's the consequence of silencing the whole industry?  Market manipulation!  Why don't you want people to talk about it?  The government wants to manipulate the market.  That's the only thing I can think of."

While Singapore was under the rule of dictatorship, it achieved the status of an international financial centre the same time.  For that, Law said it depended on the attitudes of the government and the people being governed.  He thinks China mainland is planning to import the Singapore model to Hong Kong, but condemns it as a fool's errand.  "You can see that the result is actually uncontrollable."  "Power makes people corrupted.  Why do we believe market is better than dictatorship?  Market is collective intelligence.  As long as collective intelligence is used, things won't go wrong too badly."

(15 Nov) Comparing to global economic recession, Law is more worried about the potential impact brought on by politics on the banking system.  "Does the whole system give an outward impression that you are still a free market?"  Although Hong Kong is an international financial centre, it is still outclassed by New York and London.  "If Hong Kong wants to upgrade, it shouldn't be doing what it is doing, because it goes backward...  You need to be free enough to let money go in and out at will.  People can do economic behaviours freely, information needs to flow through, but all these are being lost bit by bit"  He pointed out that, although Europe and the U.S. may also control the market, there are still differences in extent and perception.  "Better be known than be shown."  Safety of capital is very important.  "You might say your system is very secure, but it is another matter whether people believe you.  A financial centre is all about credibility."

When asked whether Law would consider returning to the government, he shook his head, "Sometimes I bumped into former colleagues who are working for the government.  The first thing I said was 'when does your kitchen explode?'"  Perhaps it is such bravery of expression that makes Law Ka Chung has to go.  Instead of taking a step back, he would rather not change who he is.

Source: Apple Daily

Excerpt: https://hk.finance.appledaily.com/finance/20191115/IPSO6WJG7VWHBZ64UQDYCI34MY/