Here are the highlights from a fortnight in the life of Li Ka-shing’s press coverage. Companies controlled by Asia’s richest man have announced they could spend $5bn to get into aircraft leasing and won control of a $2.2bn Australian gas distributor. And, yet again, Mr Li has been accused of selling out of his homeland – China and Hong Kong – by offloading property.
Anything Mr Li does or says is headline news in Hong Kong and often around the world. Contrast that with Jardine Matheson, another Hong Kong-based empire of similar size. Last week, its retail arm, Dairy Farm, spent $925m buying into a Chinese hypermarket chain. It was the group’s largest single investment in the mainland in decades. Yet it was barely remarked upon.
Comparing and contrasting the two empires’ different directions looks simple enough. Their shared heritage only spices it up – Mr Li tried raiding Jardines in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the embodiment of Hong Kong’s success today, while Jardines stands for its colonial past.