Good to see Hong Kong builder Gordon Wu Ying-sheung celebrated in Shenzhen this week. This columnist used to be a business reporter recording his exploits. In the 1980s, he decided to build a hotel in Guangdong. He couldn't get enough electricity to power the machinery, so he built a power plant. Then the trucks filled with raw materials couldn't reach the site - so Gordon built a highway. By the time his hotel was ready, he'd transformed the entire stretch of land between Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

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The Consumer Council announced this week it had "tested 315 condoms" and "five to eight" of them broke. This begs several questions. How many staff tested the 315 condoms? In nine months, will its testers have five to eight more children?

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Is Hee Hee in Malaysia the funniest building in East Asia?

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The business world and the political world continue to drift into separate galaxies.

In Central yesterday, financiers reported record demand among American investors wanting to buy Beijing bonds. The US leadership has a major downer on the Chinese government, but America's investing public literally can't get enough of it. Take our money!

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Meanwhile, have you noticed that the US government is punishing people for crimes they may commit in the future? Much of the talk among business people in town yesterday was about US plans to halt the rise of Ant Group, as it stopped the rise of TikTok and Huawei.

All three were knocked off their natural growth trajectories for future crimes they hadn't committed. All very sci-fi.

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Hong Kong opposition politicians this week: "The policy address is the most important event of this community's year, and we are outraged that you've postponed it."

Hong Kong opposition politicians last year: "Let's shout slogans so no one can hear the policy address and it has to be abandoned."

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Asian weather officials take turns naming typhoons. Meteorologists from China and the Philippines realize that storms need suitably scary names in local languages.

In the latest lists, China chose the Mandarin names "Mother of Lightning" and "God of Wind."

The Philippines chose Tagalog terms for "Cruel" and "Vicious."

Weather officials from Hong Kong, unfortunately, tend to choose unsuitably cutsie names. Hong Kong chose a Cantonese term meaning "Colorful Cloud." Earlier, our guys went through a patch of nominating little girl nicknames, including Typhoon Shanshan and Typhoon Lingling.

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Australians were shocked when three Chinese-Australians were brought in front of a government hearing in Sydney on Wednesday and challenged to express hostility to the Chinese government. Many noted the similarity to the infamous McCarthy hearings in 1950s America. This is a "public witch-hunt" against people "who are deemed not sufficiently critical enough of the Chinese government," said one of victims, an academic named Yun Jiang.

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A unique British theater group called The Paper Cinema will perform in Hong Kong in November. Audiences will simultaneously see the dramatic puppet show and the puppeteers hard at work.

What a perfect show for Hong Kong. They just need to have American and Chinese puppeteers fighting over who's pulling the strings.

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From Ella Zee via Twitter: "I'm preparing for Halloween early by pretending not to be home every time someone knocks on the door."

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Builder Gordon is ultimate transformer