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Comment by FabHK | Hacker News Reader

I'd want to see independent confirmation of this. It's a beautiful story, but here's another media report (by the SCMP, owned by Alibaba, but still regarded somewhat trustworthy by and large):

"Cathay Pacific Airways’ handover of crew details ‘satisfies mainland Chinese regulator’"

"CEO Rupert Hogg threatened to sack any employee who actively supported the protest movement, including taking part in the illegal airport demonstrations."

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/transport/article/302288...

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UK sources are not reporting anything in line with what the politician in the referenced social media post is claiming.

Instead we have comments like this from the Independent:

> [Cathay Pacific] said it would comply with a directive from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which ban any employees who took part in the protests from working on mainland China-bound flights.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/cathay-...

and from the BBC:

> Last week, Cathay Pacific had told its staff it would not stop them joining the pro-democracy demonstrations currently sweeping Hong Kong.

> But on Monday, Mr Hogg warned staff they could be fired if they "support or participate in illegal protests".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49367949

It is certainly possible this is true, but I find it troubling this story is at the top of HN without other reliable sources backing it up.

> Last week, Cathay Pacific had told its staff it would not stop them joining the pro-democracy demonstrations currently sweeping Hong Kong.

> But on Monday, Mr Hogg warned staff they could be fired if they "support or participate in illegal protests".

Not sure that's contradictory. You're allowed to go to the legal protests, but you'll get fired if you do something illegal.

I think it is valid to check the sources... However let's not get bogged down in the details and forget that a gigantic totalitarian nation is crushing the human rights of its citizens and trying to subvert the human rights of people in other nations. We must take action!

The tree of liberty must be periodically watered with blood of Patriots and Tyrants.

Honestly don’t think the two are mutually exclusive - I.e. Hogg was willing to fire employees actively participating, but not willing to hand their names over, and that a the regulator “saved face” by saying the filing satisfied it’s request (which may have been technically true if not in spirit). It will be interesting to see if we ever really find out what happened.

Agreed, there's a lot of uncertainty at this point. It could be a true story, and it would explain why he suddenly "resigned", but so far I've only see it circulate in dodgy WhatsApp groups. The article cites "local Hong Kong media reports", but I haven't seen it in the English language HK news (HKFP, SCMP, The Standard), and I don't read Cantonese...

Do you think the Chinese regulator would have backed down so easily (or in fact at all) to such a challenge to its authority?

That does not mean he did not do it. It means that if he did do it he was then essentially fired over it and Cathay Pacific then complied and provided the information.

I don't trust any mainland China sources at this point. Regardless of track record.

The South China Morning Post is a Hong Kong newspaper operating out of Hong Kong (albeit purchased by the Alibaba group in 2016). Their reputation has gone down, but they're not a "mainland China source".

Doesn't matter where they're situated if that's their owners.

Two thing are not mutually exclusive.

Would the people protesting be better off being Sacked by CX or have their names in a CCP's Watch List?

As to some comment asking how would they know employees were protesting. The reason was many of them went on Strike ( or Sick Leaves as it is officially called ) on that day, CCP wanted a list of employees that were reported on Sick Leave.

Swire ( Parent Company of Cathay ) were already under immense pressure from Beijing.

And somehow, the announcement of Rupert Hogg Resigned made it on Beijing TV broadcast 30 min before HKEX ( That is SEC in the HK ) and Cathay made the announcement. That night, many of the Cathay Employees either deleted some of their post on the movement on Social Media or had their whole profile deleted. And the Cathay pilot making the announcement on plane about the protest in Hong Kong so passenger are aware of what is happening, is no longer working in Cathay.

Once is Chances. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.

This might have been a few weeks ago, afterwards he resigned and the news that he didn't hand over (more) names is the latest story it seems. Although, i doubt you can trust Alibaba (or any mainland) related news on this regardless.

I would also like to see more independent confirmation, maybe by interviewing Mr. Hogg himself. I don't think the mainland media would corroborate a story like this, it doesn't really paint the CCP in a good light.

This would be a major scoop for NY Times, BBC, WSJ, Le Monde or any other large, Western publication. It's a story that has everything that resonates in a "CCP vs democracy" framework so it's a bit too sursprising that nobody else has picked it up. Hogg has resigned so i don't see what more damage it would cause him if he agreed to an interview.

perhaps, but there's a difference between communicating to employees not to get involved in politics, and actually ratting them out, or not.

So why was he fired then?

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