ASIA : Brazen, Bloody Attack on Hong Kong Publisher Brings Gangs to the Fore

Two days before Hong Kong publisher Leung Tin-wai launched his Surprise Weekly magazine, two men neatly dressed in suits came to visit him in his boardroom, shut the door, then chopped off his left arm with an 18-inch meat knife.

As the men escaped, Leung’s alert staff recovered the limb and a right thumb and preserved them in ice. Before he was wheeled into the ambulance, Leung reportedly muttered, “Why me?”

The answer appears to be in the debut issue of the magazine: It contained an expose of Hong Kong and Macao’s “triads,” or Mafia-style criminal societies.

A preview copy of the detailed story named triad leaders, shattering the modus vivendi between Hong Kong’s press and the territory’s gangs. Traditionally, the penalty for a gang member who reveals the societies’ secrets is death. The penalty for a journalist, one of Leung’s colleagues noted grimly, has just been established.

Along with two other violent incidents within a week, the attack on Leung highlights the gangs’ growing influence. And while Hong Kong’s violent crime rate is relatively low, the brazen assault heightens fears that mainland corruption and criminal tactics will seep across the border.

“It’s not just a magazine or one journalist being threatened,” said Daisy Li, former president of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Assn. “It’s the whole industry. It’s all of Hong Kong.”

The triads, which started as secret societies three centuries ago and helped overthrow China’s tyrannical Qing rulers in 1912, are now fixtures of Hong Kong’s underworld with less lofty pursuits.

Internationally, Hong Kong has become known as a center for drug trafficking and immigrant smuggling. At home, triad activities range from the expected vices--prostitution, gambling and drugs--to more mundane activities like garbage collection, car valet services and newspaper delivery.

Like the rest of the territory, Hong Kong’s 20 or so gangs are also preparing for the 1997 transition to Chinese rule, strengthening their overseas networks and bolstering links across the border.

Chinese authorities are reportedly relying on the societies to help maintain control in Hong Kong during the hand-over, in a reversal of the gangs’ past revolutionary role. After the leaders of the most powerful Hong Kong triad, Sun Yee On, visited Beijing in 1993, China’s minister of public security praised their “patriotism.”

As the power of the secret societies grows, so does people’s fearful fascination with them.

Leung, 53, who is recovering after surgeons reattached his arm and thumb in an 18-hour operation, is a quiet, conservative man, say his colleagues, but he knows what sells. His new magazine, in contrast to his mild manner, is sensational and audacious. In Cantonese, the title is a vulgar pun meaning “Expose Yourself,” and controversial ads showing an unbuttoned fly raised eyebrows and objections before the magazine even hit the streets.

The expose never made it to the kiosks--editors pulled the article, though they may attempt to run it again next week.

But the magazine’s launch revealed more about the triads’ power than ever.

“Obviously, this was a hit, an execution attempt by professional killers,” said Jimmy Lai, the outspoken publisher of a tabloid and the magazine where Leung worked before starting his own competing weekly.

“We’re going to have to be more careful writing about the private lives of certain kinds of people.”

Lai would know. He has been firebombed at his office and attacked at home. Once, 1,000 of his papers were dumped into the ocean after he published stories about a triad-run cigarette smuggling operation.

Organized criminals are testing Hong Kong’s law and order, hoping to take advantage of confusion when the British-run colony reverts to China, the commissioner of correctional services, Raymond Lai--no relation--said Wednesday.

In the meantime, Hong Kong publishers and journalists have offered a reward of about $650,000 for the capture of Leung’s two assailants and plan to pursue the gangs in print.

“This has frightened journalists--the attack was so naked and deliberate,” reporter Kevin Lau said at a rally to support Leung.

“But we want to show that we won’t give in to violence.”