frankg:
I get your point, but the fact is in HK (except for Permanent Residents) that when your employment is terminated (for whatever reason), your employer has to notify the IR and they will send you a tax demand immediately - and yes, it's due within days.
There is nothing exceptional or sinister about what happened to some CX employees.
However, the flip side is that the onus is on the employer to withold the approximate amount of tax owed, so that the terminated employee, if he/she faces difficulties in paying the IR directly, can instruct the IR to collect from the employer.
But the fact remains that tax is one item of expenditure in HK that is really cheap.