Attack!

Despite Chip Tsao's public apologies, Filipinos are being encouraged to boycott HK products and chose other travel destinations in retaliation for the offensive comments made in "The War at Home" piece published in HK Magazine on March 27th. With his usual satire, Tsao wrote that the Philippines was unworthy of claiming the Spratly Islands from China because "as a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter."

The Tourism Board remains unfazed, however, as tourists from the Philippines amount to only a few 100's of thousands. Even if the incensed Filipina domestic helpers were to quit their jobs, it's unlikely Hong Kong would be TOO affected - there is afterall a steady rise of Indonesian and Thai maid services, ready to fill in any gaps.

And who would such a move hurt the most? The then unemployed Filipinas and their dependents back home. Which is precisely the point Tsao was trying to make.

Calling the Philippines a "nation of servants" was certainly not tactful, but as a columnist, he is entitled to his own opinion, even a racist one! Is one person's view worth an attack on the whole of Hong Kong?