Yes, I believe bonding is illegal in HKG. This is one of the several reasons that the crews are being based in SIN where it is legal and common.
Other bases for the future, as required to cover the DHL contract will be BKK and NRT, but there will be visa "sponsorship" problems for those ports so nothing definite yet. (Rumour has it that it is difficult to sponsor Indonesian and Philippino passport holders to those ports).
Street rumour is around USD$4,000 per month for Captains with projected IPP (Incentive Pay Policy) up to $3,000 on a really good month. So maybe half of that IPP for a regular month.
As you can see they are not trying to attract people away from the US majors. Most of the applicants are expected to come from S.E. Asia. Maybe to poach a few from Orient Thai, for instance, and there are still a lot of Philippine pilots that are out of work from the last cull at Philippine Airlines .
Just rumours and smoke, but there must be a fire there somewhere...