An Explosive Wake-up Call : Are angry investors targeting a telecom tycoon.(Brief Article)

The Chinese instructions on the explosive are clear: "Light the fuse, wait 15 seconds, stand 40-50 meters away." That's exactly what someone has been doing in Hong Kong over the past two months. In that time police have found fireworks, low-grade explosives and eight-inch tubular grenades, usually used for fishing, in at least seven phone booths. A few, such as the one shown to NEWSWEEK by police, were unexploded. But at least four were simply paper shreds left over after they blew the phone boxes apart. (In addition, a dozen other booths have been smashed or had their handsets ripped out recently.) No one has been hurt so far, and the police have been unable to find a culprit. But they do have suspicions about a possible motive.

The phone booths belong to Pacific Century CyberWorks, a former high- flying telecom company owned by tycoon Richard Li. Once valued at $70 billion, PCCW's stock collapsed last year, battering thousands of investors. The company is now worth about $12 billion, and there are a lot of angry people holding a grudge against Li, whose vision of a wired Hong Kong had been hyped as the future of this former trading port.

At a time of collapsing confidence in Hong Kong's ability to reinvent itself, Li's energy and pedigree were seen as almost surefire harbingers of success. His father is Li Ka-shing, the territory's dominant businessman and a billionaire fabled for having the Midas touch. Some investors had gambled all they had on the younger Li's venture, which was to deliver interactive television to Asia, much as he had once brought satellite television to the region with Star Television. With his surging stock valuation, 34-year-old Li was able to acquire Hong Kong Telecom last year, providing an advanced fiber network to showcase his technology--and a steady stream of revenue. Police speculate that one or more investors may have lashed out at PCCW's most visible symbols--the phone booths. "It certainly wasn't for the money," says Andy Tsang, chief superintendent of the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau. "Nobody stayed behind to pick up the coin box."

The explosions may also signal growing anger among the working classes at the tycoons who have traditionally run Hong Kong. For decades poor immigrants tapped into the city's seemingly endless real-estate boom by sinking their life savings into tiny apartments that then skyrocketed in value. When prices fell after the Asian financial crisis, many investors ...