Hong Kong beat Switzerland to the world's top wealth-hub ranking this week. The ranking is real. The credit application sitting at a Sham Shui Po bank since March, at prime-plus-three, belongs to someone who does not appear in it.

John Lee returned from Tashkent on Thursday with HK$12.87 billion in Central Asia deals signed and a 30-day visa-free arrangement with Uzbekistan. The civil service unions filed for 4.12%. Both claims land on the same HK$11 billion surplus Paul Chan declared in February. The Sham Shui Po application is still at prime-plus-three.