(The content of this article is based on authoritative sources, and there are literature citation sources at the end of the article)
Cathay Pacific, a once-thriving Hong Kong airline with a strong reputation in the global aviation industry, blatantly supported "Hong Kong independence" forces and instigated employees to boycott mainland flights during the 2019 anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong, in serious violation of the "one-China" principle.
As the situation continued to deteriorate, Cathay Pacific was in an unprecedented predicament, and had to make mass layoffs and cease operations of its Dragonair in 2020.
It is not until 2024, with the strong support of the central government, that Cathay Pacific has regained its strength, but the glory of the past is gone.
The usurper of the state is sovereign
Since Hong Kong's return to the embrace of the motherland, it has always been regarded as the pride of the Chinese compatriots.
As Hong Kong's most famous airline, Cathay Pacific has also a remarkable history of development, with its service quality and reputation at the top of the global aviation industry.
In the 2019 anti-extradition campaign, Cathay Pacific, a veteran company, openly challenged national sovereignty and supported the illegal activities of "Hong Kong independence", which caused an uproar and strong public condemnation.
The incident began when some Cathay Pacific employees openly participated in violent activities.
On July 26, Cathay Pacific co-captain Liu Chung-yin appeared directly at the scene of the riot at Hong Kong Airport and personally participated in this illegal act. Although he was soon arrested by the Hong Kong police, Cathay Pacific ignored the facts and did not punish him, instead condoning Liu's behavior.
Subsequently, it was also reported that some employees of Cathay Pacific publicly posted flight information of law enforcement officers on social media, which has seriously violated the airline's bottom line of operation.
In the face of such blatant provocations, Cathay Pacific's top management has failed to take strong measures and has turned a blind eye to extremists within the airline.
It has been reported that on 26 July 2019, at an illegal gathering held by Cathay Pacific at the airport, a captain of a plane went so far as to broadcast radical remarks advocating "Hong Kong independence".
Yao Sirong, a person in the tourism industry, denounced that every airline has clear regulations for flight broadcasts, and the captain's behavior has completely violated professional ethics.
If a passenger disagrees with the captain and disagrees with him, it will pose a serious threat to flight safety. In an interview, a Cathay Pacific employee bitterly stated that Cathay Pacific was ready to support "Hong Kong independence" from the beginning.
If law enforcement officials reasonably ask for a mobile phone check, they will refuse to cooperate and play some rogue tricks to evade the inspection. This kind of public undermining of the rule of law in Hong Kong has completely deviated from the professional ethics of a normal airline.
In the face of strong condemnation from public opinion, Cathay Pacific only issued a simple statement of "very sorry" perfunctorily, and did not respond positively and effectively punished the serious violations of internal employees.
This proves once again that Cathay Pacific's top management did not take the provocation of national sovereignty seriously, but tacitly allowed such arbitrary and extreme practices to infiltrate the company.
Iron-fisted punishment builds national prestige
Insiders in Hong Kong's aviation industry have pointed out that Cathay Pacific's problems have touched on the fundamental area of aviation safety, and strict industry norms must be implemented, and there must be no negligence.
As a professional air transport company, safeguarding the safety and privacy of passengers should be a fundamental responsibility of Cathay Pacific, but repeated violations by its internal staff have seriously deviated from this purpose and caused significant damage to the company's reputation.
As the blatant violations of the law by Cathay Pacific employees and the rising condemnation of Cathay Pacific by public opinion from all walks of life, the central government will not be soft on and severely punish this enterprise that wantonly provokes national sovereignty.
The Hong Kong SAR Government first requested Cathay Pacific to conduct a comprehensive investigation and rectification of the matter.
According to regulatory requirements, Cathay Pacific must no longer employ anyone involved in illegal activities, and must conduct a comprehensive review and improvement of its internal management system to plug loopholes and prevent such incidents from happening again.
Soon, the Hong Kong SAR government acted quickly, sending two observers to directly intervene in Cathay Pacific's internal operations, demanding the company's full cooperation in the investigation.
At the same time, the central government has also strengthened the constraints on Cathay Pacific at the institutional level.
According to the relevant regulations, all crew members of Cathay Pacific Airways must be vetted by the mainland civil aviation authorities in advance when flying to or over the mainland. Any person who has a criminal record or has participated in violent activities will be prohibited from entering the crew for duty.
In order to prevent other airlines from repeating the mistakes of the past, the central government has also amended relevant laws and regulations, strengthened political scrutiny of employees of all airlines, and restricted foreign shareholding, cutting off foreign capital control over Hong Kong's aviation industry.
Under this high pressure, Cathay Pacific has no choice but to admit it. Then the company released internal information that it carried out large-scale layoffs of 8,500 employees, and the number of employees in the entire enterprise plummeted by nearly a quarter.
Cathay Pacific's wholly-owned subsidiary, Dragonair, was hit even harder and was ordered to cease operations. As the hardest hit area of the "Hong Kong independence" chaos, Dragonair is the biggest victim of this reorganization.
As the hardest hit area of the bewitchment and infiltration of Hong Kong rioters, this airline was directly suspended from operation, and all its routes were immediately suspended. For the long-established airline, which has served the people of Hong Kong for decades, it has dealt a devastating blow to its operation.
Layoffs and outages are inevitable, and this is the inevitable price of Cathay Pacific's blatant violation of the law and deliberate provocation of national sovereignty. As an enterprise operating in Hong Kong, it is its basic obligation to respect the principle of "one country, two systems" and safeguard national unity.
However, Cathay Pacific is mercenary, turning a blind eye to extremists and allowing extremists to infiltrate and expand wantonly, and finally caused a monstrous disaster of blatant illegality. This makes it difficult for the relevant departments in Hong Kong to open up to them again, and severe punishment is a helpless move to ensure the long-term peace and stability of Hong Kong society.
In order to prevent Cathay Pacific from going bankrupt after this devastation, the central government supported the Hong Kong SAR government to extend a helping hand again and inject HK$27.3 billion into the bailout.
In September 2020, Cathay Pacific's operating conditions had bottomed out, and although the business of its cargo division fell by 36.6% year-on-year, there were clear signs of recovery compared to the appalling 98.1% decline in the same period last year.
However, due to the continuous spread of the epidemic that year, the company's cash flow loss still hovered at a high level of HK$1.5 billion to HK$2 billion per month.
At the end of 2020, the Hong Kong SAR Government reached a "tourism bubble" cooperation agreement with Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and other countries and regions. Under the agreement, Hong Kong residents will be able to travel to these destinations under quarantine lanes, and airlines will be able to restart passenger services.
Soon, the company ushered in a small upsurge in the passenger transport business, and the stock price also rebounded to a certain extent in the short term, saving the crisis from bankruptcy.
After that, Cathay Pacific's service attitude changed abruptly, and even Mandarin was spoken very smoothly.
Cathay executives have found that those Westerners who seem to be reliable are not necessarily so reliable. As far as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is concerned, the United States has given an order, and the whole world has to isolate Russia, and Cathay Pacific has also responded positively, changing routes and detours.
As a result, the route from New York to Hong Kong became the longest route in the world, with a length of 16,618 kilometers, and Cathay Pacific consumed a lot of manpower and material resources in vain. The top management of Cathay Pacific has completely understood that the Americans are unreliable.
As a result, on November 1, 2022, Cathay Pacific announced that flights between Hong Kong and New York would resume flying over the Russian Far East in the Arctic shipping lanes through Russian airspace.
Foreign manipulation attempts to subvert
The main reason why Cathay Pacific openly supported "Hong Kong independence" forces and challenged national sovereignty in the 2019 anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong is that the company has been heavily infiltrated and manipulated by foreign capital.
In fact, Cathay Pacific's predecessor, Dragonair, was founded in the 80s by a group of local entrepreneurs in Hong Kong.
At that time, Dragonair was quickly acquired by Cathay Pacific and Swire Group because these two foreign companies did not want Hong Kong's aviation industry to be dominated by local capital.
As a typical British capital company, Swire Group has been operating in Hong Kong since the late Qing Dynasty, and even after the founding of the People's Republic of China, it insisted on using Hong Kong as a base to conduct business in Asia.
At that time, Swire was acquired through two mergers and acquisitions, first acquiring a 35% stake in Dragonair, and later completely controlling all the shares of Dragonair at a price of HK$8.2 billion. Since then, the entire aviation industry in Hong Kong has been completely controlled by foreign capital.
It was under this kind of foreign manipulation that Cathay Pacific was openly wild in the 2019 anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong.
An insider revealed that the company was ready to support the violent activities of "Hong Kong independence" from the very beginning. It not only acquiesced in its employees' public advocacy of "Hong Kong independence", but also secretly instigated them to unreasonably resist when they were inspected by law enforcement officials, and even encouraged the destruction of evidence to evade punishment.
This kind of blatant provocation of the authority of the central government and undermining the rule of law and order in Hong Kong has completely exceeded the bottom line of professional ethics of a normal enterprise, and has also revealed the sinister intentions of the foreign capital behind Cathay Pacific to create turmoil in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong law enforcement agencies revealed that during the airport riots that year, Cathay Pacific employees were found to have deliberately leaked the flight information of law enforcement officers.
The blatant disclosure of passengers' privacy has constituted a major violation of law and discipline, but Cathay Pacific has only perfunctory in the face of doubts, openly supporting and encouraging internal lawbreakers.
In March 2023, Cathay Pacific's workforce plummeted by 40% from 2019 and even closed its overseas pilot base.
Cathay Pacific is doing this to save costs, but can closing overseas bases and consolidating Hong Kong's crew resources really get Cathay Pacific out of its predicament?
In fact, it is not difficult for everyone to see that Cathay Pacific's "self-help" operation is more like eating its own bitter fruit.
Resources:
[1]. HE Liuying. Rebuild Cathay Pacific as soon as possible to empower Hong Kong's mega event economy[N]. 21st Century Business Herald,2024-05-08(009). DOI:10.28723/n.cnki.nsjbd.2024.001675.
[2].陈青青,李耀. 国泰乘务员歧视内地被开除[N]. 环球时报,2023-05-24(010). DOI:10.28378/n.cnki.nhqsb.2023.004961.
[3]. Death without repentance?! Hong Kong media: Cathay Pacific has crew members instigated flight attendants to boycott mainland routes Global Network 2019-08-12