HKSAR’s Population at 7 Million

At the South China Morning Post, some letters to the editor are really clever, while some letters leave a lot to be desired. The letter (below) is an example of the latter; it does not provide a compelling argument to support its claim that HKSAR’s chief executive is wrong to predict that Hong Kong can optimally accommodate a population of 10 million.

Further note: if there was an attempt at sarcasm (i.e. mansion, bodyguards), then that also failed. Culturally and generally speaking, Hong Kong Chinese are not the best when it comes to sarcasm (although admittedly, there is no indirect way of knowing for sure whether the letter writer is Hong Kong Chinese or not).



Fanciful idea

Feb 19, 2009

I refer to the story ("HK population passes 7m on surge in births", February 17).

It was reported that Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen had said he thought "Hong Kong's optimal size would be about 10 million".

If he gets out of his government limo and out of his government mansion and walks the streets of Hong Kong without his bodyguards to clear his way, then he will know what the optimal population size of Hong Kong is. Give us a break - 10 million?

Alec Leung, Mong Kok