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Even more troubling is suspicion that Cheung is being prosecuted in China precisely because of its swifter courts and tougher justice. (Hong Kong does not have the death penalty, for example; China does.) The kidnapping victims' families, who have good connections in Beijing, have been conspicuously uncooperative with Hong Kong police. Chief Secretary Anson Chan, the territory's top civil servant, has called their attitude "deplorable." Hong Kong authorities, meanwhile, haven't charged Cheung with kidnapping (claiming that without any formal reports from the victims, there is insufficient evidence to mount a criminal case) or requested his extradition from Guangzhou. Hong Kong journalists, who have engaged in an orgy of reporting and speculation about the case, note that Chinese President Jiang Zemin railed against crime in a celebrated speech in Hong Kong last July; three weeks later, Beijing announced Big Spender's arrest. China argues that the kidnappings were planned on Chinese soil, possibly in one of Cheung's 50 properties there.
The irony is that for decades Cheung used the Hong Kong-China border as his personal shield. His most lucrative crimes were carried out on the richer southern side, despite its efficient police and courts. For escape and refuge, the looser law-and-order climate on the Chinese side suited him well. His chronic escapes from justice gave him a folk-hero reputation for invincibility. But since the trial began Oct. 21, the public has been deluged with details of unverifiable exploits. Cheung was said, for example, to have been working closely with Yip Kai-foon, a notorious robber. And some have alleged there was a plan to kidnap Chief Secretary Chan late last year--a crime that would have seriously jolted Hong Kong. The kidnappings of Li and Kwok had already rattled the territory's super-rich, many of whom have hired expensive bodyguards and security firms.
Cheung has two lawyers: one familiar with the Chinese system and another brought in from Hong Kong. Says the latter, Tang: "The Hong Kong legal system has surrendered to the China legal system." If true, that's bad for his client. Big Spender has already spent three months in a Chinese jail; if the past is any indicator, a guilty verdict will be followed swiftly by a death sentence, normally a bullet in the head.
Reported by Maria Cheng/Hong Kong and Isabella Ng/Guangzhou
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