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 Mark Simon, the right-hand man of pro-democracy newspaper magnate
Jimmy Lai, has moved his family out of Hong Kong for safety and has
been pressed to deny that he is a U.S. spy.
But, in interviews with Reuters, Simon insists he will not let a
"relentless smear campaign" force him out of his home in the Asian
financial hub and he still has plenty of stomach for the fight.
Large, loud and avowedly Republican, the 50-year-old has been
portrayed across pro-Beijing media as a CIA agent - a charge also
thrown at student protest leader Joshua Wong and an independent
academic pollster, Robert Chung.
He's also a proud Catholic - something that links him to Lai and
many other prominent figures in the Hong Kong democracy struggle.
Simon described Lai as an instinctive backer of underdogs rather
than an "egotist" who believes that he will single-handedly change
China.
"Jimmy's instinct is to size up the weak, and to size up the strong,
and then instinctively protect the weak," he said.
 "We are Hong Kong guys and we are Catholics."
The former British colony of Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese
rule in 1997, has witnessed a month of protests calling on the
Beijing-backed government to keep its promise of introducing
universal suffrage.
The protests have for the most part been peaceful, with occasional
clashes between the student-led protesters and Beijing supporters
seeking to move them from the streets. China has expressed
dissatisfaction about what it sees as foreign interference in an
internal issue.
Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying recently echoed Beijing's concerns
that foreign forces were behind the protests, but said the time was
not right to reveal the government's evidence.
"I DON'T LIKE BULLIES"
Simon, who stands a broad and heavy-set 1.9 meters, said he was
unafraid about staying in Hong Kong. But he said that after his
address was published on-line he felt it wise to send his wife and
two children back to the United States, unsure of what "nut-jobs"
would be willing to do to impress Communist Party leaders in
Beijing.
"I have a good job, I have a great boss, I have huge
responsibilities and I am not going to let a bunch of jackass
commies impose things on me," Simon said.
"I just don't like bullies acting like this... If I was 25 years
younger I would be walking in these guys' bars looking for them."
Earlier this year, hundreds of emails and documents were stolen in a
hacking attack on Lai's Next Media operation, some of them detailing
the magnate's extensive, and well known, funding of Hong Kong's
democratic activists.
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They were then leaked en masse to Hong Kong media, including
pro-Beijing mouthpiece papers that have focused on Simon's alleged
role.
Hong Kong's anti-corruption force, the Independent Commission
Against Corruption, is also investigating after public complaints
over specific funding to lawmakers. Both Simon's and Lai's homes
have been searched.
Simon has been in Hong Kong since the early 1990s and has worked
with Lai since 2000, working earlier on media and on-line projects
and more recently helping manage his extensive non-media
investments.
Of his portrayal in pro-Beijing media as an "international man of
mystery", Simon links the allegations against him back to his four
years as a young civilian in the U.S. Navy as an intelligence
analyst scrutinizing submarine developments.
He has also made no secret of his Republican activism, or his
extensive contacts in the U.S. Congress, some of whom he meets
during visits to Hong Kong.
"You've got 20 percent of America that thinks Barack Obama is not a
U.S. citizen, OK, and in a place like Hong Kong you've got 30
percent of people who believe all this CIA stuff," he said.
He believes the U.S. government has no interest in meddling in Hong
Kong but merely wants it to remain stable. And he doesn't believe
China really thinks of him as a menace.
"If they really thought I was causing trouble, I wouldn't be here,"
he said. "They would have nailed me to the wall."
(Reporting by Greg Torode; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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