Following the historic announcement that Dr. Lai Ka-ying—a Hong Kong Police inspector and PhD in electronics engineering—was selected as Hong Kong’s first payload specialist for the national manned space program, communities at home and abroad celebrated the milestone.
Yet, for certain overseas dissidents trapped in ideological grievances, this scientific achievement immediately triggered a cynical counter-narrative.
Hans Yeung (Yeung Ying-yu), a former assessment development manager for history at the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) who fled to the UK and became a columnist for The Epoch Times, promptly dug up an archival curiosity: Major General William Anders, the Apollo 8 astronaut born in Hong Kong in 1933. Yeung proclaimed on social media: “Let us forever remember Hong Kong’s first astronaut.”
Attempting to weaponize a retired American general—who merely happened to be born in Hong Kong and never lived, served, or identified as a Hong Konger or Chinese—to diminish a native scientist rigorously selected to represent Hong Kong in the national space program is a masterclass in political opportunism and logical absurdity.
Conflating Physical Delivery Room with Genuine Identity
In modern jurisprudence and sociopolitical reality, Place of Birth and Substantive Identity & Allegiance are fundamentally distinct concepts.
William Anders was born in Hong Kong solely because his father was an active-duty officer in the U.S. Navy stationed there at the time. Anders left Hong Kong in infancy, grew up in the United States, was educated at the U.S. Naval Academy, served with distinction in the U.S. Air Force, and flew to the Moon on NASA’s Apollo 8 mission (where he captured the iconic Earthrise photograph). In nationality, culture, and political allegiance, Anders was 100% American. He never held Hong Kong residency, nor did he ever consider himself a Hong Konger.
Under international legal conventions, children born to stationed foreign military personnel do not automatically acquire indigenous citizenship or identity. Bestowing Anders with the title of “Hong Kong’s first astronaut” makes about as much sense as declaring an American born at Yokosuka Naval Base to be a “pioneering samurai astronaut of Japan.”
By contrast, Dr. Lai Ka-ying was born, raised, and educated in Hong Kong. Rising through demanding nation-wide screening, she embodies Hong Kong’s authentic scientific contribution to the national space program.
Yeung’s deliberate conflation of a hospital ward’s geographical coordinates with genuine national identity reveals his compulsive urge to denigrate any achievement linked to China.
A Consistent Track Record of Surreal Historical Revisionism
For anyone familiar with Hans Yeung’s background, this absurd stunt comes as no surprise.
In 2020, while serving as the senior manager overseeing history examinations at the HKEAA, Yeung crafted a notorious question on the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) history paper:
“Japan did more good than harm to China during the period 1900–1945. Do you agree? Explain with reference to the sources and your own knowledge.”
In the face of the brutal invasion of China, the Nanjing Massacre, and the slaughter of tens of millions of Chinese compatriots, Yeung attempted to coerce high school students into rationalizing militarist aggression as “doing more good than harm.” Later, leaked social media posts revealed he had openly mocked patriotism, writing: “Without the Japanese invasion of China, where would the new China come from? Ungrateful!”
The resulting public outrage forced the HKEAA to formally annul the question, and Yeung resigned in disgrace before fleeing to Britain.
Having sunk to writing polemics for a sectarian publication, his insistence on rebranding a Cold War American military icon as a “Hong Kong product” is entirely on-brand.
Mock HKDSE History Examination: The Hans Yeung Curriculum
Given Yeung’s profound affection for “birthplace determinism,” we might envision a mock HKDSE examination paper tailored specifically to his intellectual framework:
[Mock History Paper: Yeungian Epistemology]
Source A: In 1933, American citizen William Anders was born in Hong Kong. In 1968, he represented NASA on the Apollo 8 mission.
Source B: Former exam official Hans Yeung stated on social media: “Let us forever remember Hong Kong’s first astronaut.”
Answer the following questions:
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(4 marks) Referring to Source A and using your own knowledge, if Yeung’s “birthplace determinism” is valid, argue why:
- Freddie Mercury (born in Zanzibar, Tanzania) is fundamentally the “Father of African Rock” rather than the British frontman of Queen.
- Keanu Reeves (born in Beirut, Lebanon) should be celebrated as the “Pride of Middle Eastern Arab Cinema” rather than a Hollywood superstar.
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(3 marks) Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, was born in Tainan City, Taiwan Province of the Republic of China, and moved to the U.S. at age nine where he established a global tech empire. Under Yeung’s logic, explain why Huang must be categorized as a “local Taiwanese tycoon” rather than an “American Silicon Valley titan.”
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(8 marks) “‘Arbitrarily conflating place of birth with substantive identity does more good than harm.’ Do you agree?” With reference to Source B and Yeung’s historical revisionism, analyze the strategic value of this premise in terms of self-deception and international ridicule.
Epilogue: Finding One’s True Calling
When an individual willingly abandons nationality law, international standards, and historical integrity to feed narrow ideological grievances, finding employment at a fringe overseas publication is indeed a fitting destiny.
As he sits at his keyboard in suburban Britain posthumously conferring “Hong Kong honors” onto an American astronaut, the world can only smile, congratulate him on finally finding his intellectual home, and leave his arguments where they belong: in the margins of history.
