Ma Sik-chun and his older brother
Ma Sik-yu came from
Chiu Chow,
Guangdong. They eventually relocated to
Hong Kong. The Ma brothers became associates of
Ng Shek-ho, a major
drug trafficker in Hong Kong. It was alleged that the Ma brothers began trafficking
heroin from 1967 onward, with Ma Sik-chun earning the nickname "Golden Ma". At the time, Ma Sik-chun was in charge of street gangs and distribution. For their procurement of heroin, the Ma brothers aligned themselves with
Laos general
Ouane Rattikone. Ma Sik-chun was considered one of the biggest drug lords in Asia. The brothers founded the
Oriental Daily News in 1969. In 1977, warrants were issued for the arrest of the brothers for the importation of 700 tonnes of
opium into Hong Kong between 1968 and 1974. Ma Sik-chun's brother, Ma Sik-yu escaped to
Taiwan, where there was no
extradition treaty with Hong Kong. Ma Sik-chun stayed in Hong Kong, and was charged in August 1977. He was granted
bail of HK$500,000 cash plus two
sureties totaling HK$1 million. He escaped
bail and was smuggled to Taiwan in 1978. A further warrant for his arrest was issued on September 25, 1978. On arrival in Taiwan, he was arrested for illegal entry but was freed one year later. The ownership of Oriental Daily News passed to his son Ma Ching-kwan. In 1998, the British
Conservative Party was caught in a political scandal after it was revealed that Ma Ching-kwan donated £1 million to the party in 1994. The scandal surfaced after Ma Ching-kwan demanded the donation back, and receipt of the donation, along with a picture of
Prime Minister John Major meeting Ma Ching-kwan at
10 Downing Street, was published on the paper. Accounts emerged that the donation was made with the condition of the safe return of Ma Sik-chun to Hong Kong. The Conservative Party did not deny the donation, but denied that any conditions were attached.
William Hague, then
leader of the Conservative Party, agreed to hand the money back on the basis that it was foreign money. In 2010, Oriental Press sued the companies behind five websites, including
Wikipedia, for publishing allegedly defamatory statements. The complaints were mainly about the drug trafficking history of its founder, the Ma brothers, found on the
Chinese Wikipedia. The
Wikimedia Foundation, as a company registered in
California, had ignored the court summon and was absent from the trial. The Oriental Press Group therefore received a favorable ruling on paper, including damage claim and an injunction order in August 2010. The articles remained on Chinese Wikipedia. Multiple attempts to return Ma Sik-chun was made before his death, including one in 2014 where his lawyer claimed that it is his "dying wish" to return to Hong Kong, and that jumping bail was not an offence in Hong Kong until 1994. He died at the
Taipei Veterans General Hospital in
Taiwan at age 77. ==In popular culture==