Ho Ching criticised over reposting of cartoon on HK and US protests

Singapore — After sharing a cartoon contrasting US President Donald Trump’s reaction to protests in the US and Hong Kong, Facebook regular Ho Ching has drawn criticism from people in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Ms Ho, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings, is active online and makes regular social media posts.

On Monday (June 1), Ms Ho reposted a cartoon by Singaporean political cartoonist Heng Kim Song, which was published in the Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao.

The cartoon showed Mr Trump reacting to both the Hong Kong and US protests. As Hong Kong protesters were depicted smashing a shop window, Mr Trump called for “democracy”, but as protesters were depicted smashing shop windows in Minnesota, he called them “thugs”.

Ms Ho’s post garnered 3,100 likes and more than 500 comments.

People on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo commented that Ms Ho “deserves praise” for sharing the cartoon. However, scmp.com reported that Hong Kong news portal Winandmac Media had said on Twitter that it thought Ms Ho did not “understand the nature” of the city’s anti-government protests, adding that it was “disgraceful to compare Hong Kong with the US”.

The scmp.com report added that, in Taiwan, the English-language news website Taiwan News said Ms Ho had “drawn the ire” of Taiwanese people once more. In April, Ms Ho found herself on the receiving end of some backlash after one post concerning a donation of masks from Taiwan. She had responded on a link to an article from Taiwan News entitled, “Taiwan to donate medical masks to Singapore”, with a rather cryptic “Errrr….” This was perceived as an ungracious response by many people, especially those in Taiwan. /TISG