HSBC under fresh pressure over claims it checks Hong Kong clients’ pro-democracy links

Linda J. Dodson

Bob Seely, a Conservative MP, said it was appalling if HSBC is involved in carrying out such checks and that aiding the destruction of Hong Kong’s political and economic freedoms is “entirely wrong”. 

He said: “This is how democracy dies in reality. It’s not so much with the high profile arrests but the day to day outlawing of perfectly legal political activity.

“I think the lack of respect shown for Hong Kong’s traditions by HSBC is really going to hurt it in other parts of the world.”

HSBC has faced growing pressure in the UK over its public support for the new Chinese national security law introduced in Hong Kong. The bank makes about 80pc of its profits in Hong Kong and mainland China. 

The law criminalises anti-government movements and introduces life sentences or long jail terms for vaguely defined national security crimes.

Kevin Hollinrake, a Conservative MP and banking campaigner, said: “They should never have agreed to support the national security law in the first place. That was always going to be the thin end of the wedge. 

“They’re complicit in what is in, in most people’s view, an illegal act by the Chinese state. This is Gestapo-level stuff.”

Last year, HSBC ran a marketing campaign praising internationalism under the slogan “we are not an island.”  But MPs accused it of being complicit in the destruction of human rights and free speech by the back door by complying with China’s national security law. 

Tom Tugendhat, Conservative MP and chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, said: “The key is that this indicates the level of pressure on even banks that are not domiciled in Chinese jurisdiction is considerable, which raises huge concerns about the pressure that must be on Chinese businesses.”

Neil O’Brien, a Conservative MP and member of the China Research Group of MPs, said it was time for the UK to create institutions to deal with China’s influence over British companies: “If we can see that they’re lobbying for the security law that they are vetting customers’ pro democracy content what is it we can’t see?

Credit Suisse Julius Baer and UBS all declined to report on a Reuters report this week which said they have begun probing clients’ pro-democracy ties. 

A HSBC spokesman said: “We already have a stringent set of policies and rigorous processes in place which we apply globally.”

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