On April 17, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, Christopher Hui Ching-yu, attended the Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS) 2023 in London, United Kingdom.
Hui is the first chief-ranking official who visited the UK since former Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah visited during the Hong Kong anti-extradition protests in 2019.
Hui is also the first Hong Kong government official to visit the UK since the UK government announced the Chinese Communist Party breached the Sino-British Joint Declaration and post-implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law.
Political Prisoners Concern Group and many Hongkongers gathered and demonstrated outside the summit venue.
Hongkongers Protest in London
Hui was a guest sharing crypto assets and Web 3.0 at the summit. His arrival led to UK-Hongkonger organizations and Hongkongers protesting against Hui’s visit outside the London City Hall (Guildhall).The UK-Hong Kong demonstrators believed the UK government should not have granted Hui entry.
At the beginning of the demonstration, a rally host made clear that the event was to convey to the UK government that they should never establish relationships with Hong Kong officials.
The disgruntled migrated Hongkongers protested that the Hong Kong government refused to return their hard-earned pension, the MPF Funds.
Hongkongers who moved permanently to the UK could not withdraw the funds from Hong Kong banks after Beijing deemed the BNO Visa as an invalid and unrecognized travel document on Jan. 31, 2021.
What is MPF
The Mandatory Provident Fund is a compulsory saving scheme, a pension fund for employers and their employees to contribute monthly based on salaries. Both parties usually deposit the funds to approved private banks or insurance companies for when Hongkongers retire.Hong Kong residents are entitled to withdraw their MPF funds if departing Hong Kong permanently.
During his speech, Benedict Rogers of Hong Kong Watch said that it was ridiculous for the British government to allow Christopher Hui to enter the country and that Hui should immediately go home.
Rogers said Hui represents the regime that destroyed Hong Kong’s freedom, openness, and the rule of law and undermined the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
He also stated that the HKGov had turned Hong Kong into a city controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, believed the UK should have sanctioned Hui, and refused his entry to the late Queen’s soil.
Rogers was denied entry to Hong Kong a few years ago by the Hong Kong authorities.
Foreign Travel Document Cancelled By Beijing
Rogers affirmed BNO visa holders should be able to withdraw their pension, just as anyone else moving away from Hong Kong.He urged the British government to pressure the Secretary for Treasure and the Hong Kong government to revert the decision.
He also named several global financial institutions operating the MPF, such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Manulife, conspiring and cooperating with the Hong Kong government to steal Hongkongers’ pension funds.
The Hong Kong Watch’s report on MPF estimates that over 160,000 UK-migrated Hongkongers with BNO have been denied their pension totaling 2.2 billion pounds.
Luke De Pulford pointed out that it was utterly unacceptable to welcome the person into the public organizations in the UK who had caused Hongkongers to leave their homes.
The Human rights activist said Christopher Hui should be sanctioned, not welcomed.
IPAC: Banks Should Stop Working with HKGov to Withhold MPF
Glacier Kwong Chung-ching, Hong Kong campaign coordinator at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), told The Epoch Times that foreign governments are accountable and capable of pressuring overseas finance institutions managing MPF, such as HSBC and Prudential, and stop them from becoming accomplices of human rights violation.Several British members of Parliament wrote to the UK government and questioned why it would allow Hong Kong government officials to visit the UK, particularly in Hui in this case. The members also challenged if the UK government had considered the human rights situation in Hong Kong.
However, they received no official responses from the authorities.
Coming Soon: Crowdfunding Restrictions in Hong Kong
During his overseas visit, Hui spoke on crowdfunding through a National Security Education Day video conference on April 15, 2023. Hui said, “Crowdfunding endangers national security and carries other risks.”The public consultation for regulating crowdfunding activities ended in March 2023 in Hong Kong and received 60 submissions and responses.
HKGov’s Nightmare: Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding became the primary source of gathering financial support to aid media companies, arrested protests, democratic parties, and other humanitarian funds during the anti-extradition movement in 2019.Groups such as The 612 Humanitarian Relief Funds were one of the primary not-for-profit organizations that aided arrested protesters and affected families, providing free legal aid, counseling, and medical assistance.
The regime seized the non-profit group’s assets and arrested and convicted its trustees, including Cardinal Joseph Zen, after the National Security Law went into effect.
The 612 Humanitarian Funds ceased its operation in August 2021.
Since 2020, to cut off Hongkongers’ capital chain against the totalitarian, the Hong Kong government suppressed crowdfunding projects, prosecuting organizations and fundraisers with charges such as money laundering.
