Former Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung, who earlier this year launched a website promising informants bounties for the identities of masked anti-government protesters, is now encouraging domestic workers to snitch on their employers for taking part in the ongoing protests.
Photos have been circulating on social media since last week of fliers being handed out in residential estates telling domestic workers to report to Leung’s website, called 803.hk, any suspicious activity by their employers that may be related to the protests.
One such flier distributed at The Beaumont residential estate in Tseung Kwan O urged domestic workers to drop the dime on employers possessing “illegal items” — such as face masks, petrol bombs, gas masks, and goggles — to Leung’s bounty website, which offers thousands upon thousands of dollars to those who can provide information leading to the successful prosecution of protesters deemed especially egregious.
In a Facebook post last night, Leung credited the fliers to “some people” (he also initially didn’t take credit for the website itself, which was registered in his name), but nonetheless appeared to endorse them.
“Some people have voluntarily made leaflets promoting 803.hk to encourage domestic reporters to make any reports about employers being involved with ‘black violence,'” he said in the post, referring to the black clothing preferred by pro-democracy protesters.
He went on to urge followers to tell their own domestic workers to help “spread the word among other sisters,” and added that there would be monetary rewards. (His post conveniently — some might even say self-servingly — fails to indicate whether those rewards would replace the months or years of income lost should those workers lose their jobs and be forced to leave Hong Kong due to their boss’ arrest.)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=971083476587463&set=a.127929567569529&type=3&theater
The domain name 803.hk refers to the date, Aug. 3, on which protesters threw a Chinese flag into the sea after removing it from a flagpole in Tsim Sha Tsui, an incident that sparked more than a little indignation in pro-Beijing circles.
Rewards on the bounty site range from HK$200,000 (about US$25,000) for the identities of those who took part in unruly protests at the airport and Wong Tai Sin in recent months, to as much as HK$1 million (about US$127,000) for those responsible for pelting the Chinese national emblem with eggs and black paint at Beijing’s liaison office in July.
Since its launch, the website has added more bounties, including some for those who can provide information on assaults on pro-democracy figures like Jimmy Sham (HK$300,000, or about US$38,000), and Roy Kwong and Andy Chan (HK$100,000, or about US$13,000) apiece.
It’s also offering HK$300,000 for whoever can provide information leading to the prosecution of the protester who famously delivered a flying kick to the head of a police officer who was in the midst of making an arrest.
