A cross-border smuggling ring using high-tech equipment to ship smartphones across the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border has been busted, marking the first of such cases.The gadget-savvy criminals used drones to fly wires between buildings on the Hong Kong and mainland sides. Once secured, and using an electric winch and pulley system, the wires formed a high-level crossing to convey contraband from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.The 26 members of the cross-border smuggling ring was found to be shuttling bags of mobile phones worth some 500 million yuan ($79.5 million), mostly refurbished iPhones.The crime ring and its ringleader, surnamed Wu, were detained after a joint operation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen law enforcement officers.According to the Shenzhen Customs Office, the suspects temporarily attached wires using flying drones to carry the wires from two rented rooms on the 25th floor of a residential building in Luohu district, Shenzhen, to a home in Lin Ma Hang village on the Hong Kong side. Their accomplices in the special administrative region then threaded the wires through a pulley placed on the rooftop of the home.Once a bag was attached to the wires in Hong Kong, the Shenzhen operatives would use an electric winch to retract the wires. They worked from midnight to the early hours to avoid suspicion, and the two rooms were covered with carpets to reduce the noise of the motor.Chen Liang, spokesperson for Shenzhen Customs, said the ring's every move had been thought through carefully, as neighbors were apparently unaware of the illegal activity.A total of 20 smartphones would be placed inside a small canvas bag and then sent from Hong Kong, ascending high above street level during their journey.About 10,000 to 15,000 smartphones could be smuggled in one day using this delivery method. For each successfully smuggled smartphone, at least 20 to 30 yuan could be earned. Revenues could be as high as 100 yuan for each new phone. It was estimated that smugglers could make over 10 million yuan per month, despite only working for 15 days.Acting on tips, law enforcement officers from both sides smashed the operation in February 2018 after months of investigation.A total of 260 Shenzhen Customs officers raided the rented rooms and arrested several suspects who had just finished retracting the wires to get the bootlegged goods. Also confiscated at the two rented rooms in Shenzhen were 4,000 smartphones and tools used to smuggle them. These included several motors that were burned out from overloaded shipments and backup motors. Hong Kong Customs detained three people connected to the activity, and confiscated 900 smartphones and associated tools.The gang, said to be operating since 2016, were comprised mostly of friends and relatives of Wu, the ringleader from Heyuan, Guangdong province. vinyl wristbandscustom printed wristbands24 hour wristbands coupon codecustom rubber bandspersonalized rubber bracelets
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange needs to put the hearts of investors at ease over the dual-class shareholding structure to preserve its world market standing and be seen to be fair. Provided to China Daily The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), backed by the government, is making big strides in reforming the rules to allow dual-class shareholding companies to list in the city despite concerns it could undermine the interest of minority shareholders in those companies. Since losing out to New York over the listing of mainland e-commerce giant Alibaba Group a few years ago, the local bourse has been lobbying hard to change the regulations, arguing that the restriction has placed Hong Kong at a distinct disadvantage against rival financial centers in luring new technology companies to float in the special administrative region, particularly those from the Chinese mainland. The regulator's initial resistance melted away when the government openly backed the proposal after it became clear that the SAR had slipped behind New York and Shanghai in the global IPO market rankings. As it is, public consultations on the issue, which will end later this month, are nothing more than a formality. HKEX has insisted that sufficient provisions will be incorporated into the new rules to provide the necessary protection for minority shareholders' interests. But, there are important issues that need to be thrashed out to help clear lingering doubts in the minds of investors. For instance, nothing has been said about whether those dual-class shareholding companies with sufficiently large capitalization will be accepted as constituent stocks in the city's benchmark Hang Seng Index. This is important because if they aren't, then investors will have the choice of staying away from such stocks if they don't feel comfortable with the inherent unfairness of the shareholding structure. When these stocks are admitted into the exclusive club of the index constituent stocks, index fund managers will have no choice, but to include them in their portfolio in proportion to their index weighting. Another point of contention involves the Takeover Code which sets the trigger point of a general offer at a 30-percent holding. That trigger point has to be reset for dual-class shareholding stocks because of the different voting rights of the two classes of shares. The stock exchange is obliged to clarify all the issues that are of concern to investors to preserve its status as an international market that is fair and transparent.
