Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing has defended his business strategy after an unprecedented series of personal attacks in Chinese state media.
Li, long considered a pro-Beijing businessman, dismissed the attacks as a “brouhaha” in a rare public statement issued Tuesday.
He said that there was “no truth” in allegations that he was withdrawing investment from China and rebutted criticism that he was unpatriotic.
Known locally as “superman” for his business prowess, Li was upbraided by the People’s Daily, regarded as the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, earlier in September for offloading assets.
That followed a a long article from a think tank affiliated with Xinhua, China’s official news agency, which accused him of abandoning China just when the economy was slowing.
Li owns many landmark property developments in China including Oriental Plaza in Beijing.
Restructuring
The criticism in part stems from a move earlier this year to restructure his business empire and move it to the Cayman Islands.
Li said that he would still look for investment opportunities in China but over the past two years his companies had been more “prudent towards property investments” there.
Willy Lam, a Chinese politics scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong says that Li had close ties with former President Jiang Zemin and invested heavily in China in the early 1990s when other countries shunned the country in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
“There’s no love lost between Li and the current leadership but to criticize him so openly has repercussions for other businessmen.
“His (Li’s) reponse was much harsher than expected. He was angry and very frank.”
Li was long regarded as Asia’s richest man but, according to Forbes, he was recently unseated by Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin.
Li’s business empire had humble beginnings.
Born in 1928, he built up a plastic flower manufacturing business before investing in Hong Kong property in the 1960s when prices were low.