Hong Kong heroes who tried to save victims of knife double murder among those singled out in city leader John Lee’s first honours list
- Hero chef who tackled knife-wielding Plaza Hollywood double killer with two stools awarded the Bronze Medal for Bravery
- 59-strong Turkey earthquake disaster team given Commendation for Government and Public Service
Five Hong Kong Good Samaritans were commended by the government after they tried to stop the brutal double murder of two women in a shopping centre last month, including a have-a-go hero chef honoured for his attempt to tackle the knife-wielding attacker armed only with two stools.
As part of the 2023 Honours List announced each year on the July 1 handover anniversary, Ho Siu-fai was awarded a Bronze Medal for Bravery after he faced up to the man who stabbed the two women at the Plaza Hollywood shopping centre in Diamond Hill, where he works in a restaurant.
“The chief executive would like to thank [the] citizen who bravely confronted the suspect with a view to stopping the latter from continuing his assault on others,” a government spokesman said.
Ho displayed “an extraordinary level of gallantry and selflessness” for attacking the killer with a stool and guarding him “to prevent the suspect from fleeing from the scene until police officers arrived”, the citation said.
The chef had earlier declined to give his full name in interviews and insisted he was “a bit impulsive” and “definitely not a hero”.
Four other people who gave first aid to the two women after the June 2 attack while the killer was still at large were awarded the Chief Executive’s Commendation for Community Service in recognition of their “selfless acts”.
A 39-year-old man has appeared in court charged with two counts of murder.
The 403 people on the honours list also included the 59-strong rescue team sent on a mercy mission to Turkey after the country was devastated by an earthquake earlier this year.
They were all given the Chief Executive’s Commendation for Government and Public Service in recognition of their aid efforts.
The team, which included personnel from the Fire Services Department, the Department of Health, the Immigration Department and the Security Bureau, were honoured with the inaugural Chief Executive’s Award for Exemplary Performance last month.
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Business and community leaders and a former English chief justice who sits in the city’s top court were also presented with awards.
Business sector lawmaker Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, who also advises the city’s leader as an Executive Council member, and ex-lawmaker Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, the president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, were among the five people awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest honour.
Others given the city’s top award were Poon Chung-kwong, the former president of Polytechnic University, Lam Shuk-yee, a long-time trade unionist, and Sze Chi-ching, a veteran leader of the Fujian clan.
This year’s list, which also included 10 Gold Bauhinia Star awards, 28 silver and 41 bronze, was the first to be selected by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu.
Among the Gold Bauhinia Star recipients were Nicholas Phillips, a non-permanent judge of Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal since 2012, who was lord chief justice of England and Wales from 2005 to 2008.
“His joining and participation in the Court of Final Appeal through sitting in and writing judgments in important commercial, shipping and criminal cases has helped enhance the reputation of the court and instil public confidence in its jurisprudence,” his citation said.
Two leaders in the journalism industry, May Chan Shuk-mei of Commercial Radio and Yuen Chi-wai of broadcaster, were awarded Gold Bauhinia Star and Silver Bauhinia Star respectively. The government praised the former for “raising the standard of media practitioners and promoting journalism education”, and the latter for “upholding his professionalism and producing professional news programmes with fair reporting”.
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Deputy police commissioner Albert Yuen Yuk-kin and Edwina Lau Chi-wai, a former deputy commissioner who was in charge of national security and retired in April, were awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star.
Lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, seen as a hardliner in the pro-establishment bloc, was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star for his “staunch support and notable contributions in the promotion of safeguarding national security”.
The number of people given awards this year was less than half the 889 granted last year by former chief Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her last awards list.
She also gave the Grand Bauhinia Medal to Lee as she prepared to leave office.
The Hong Kong honours, introduced in 1997 and modelled on the British system, were designed to recognise people who have benefited the community.
A presentation ceremony for all those honoured will be held later this year.
