British banks in Hong Kong, including HSBC, have been complicit in suppressing human rights by proactively supporting Beijing’s National Security Law, a group of UK lawmakers found in an inquiry.
British banks have denied Hongkongers access to their mandatory provident funds by rejecting their British National (Overseas) status, or BN(O) status, as evidence of permanent departure from Hong Kong, the inquiry found.
It means Hongkongers who moved to the UK via the BNO route lost access to their money, making it harder for them to settle down.
The banks also denied Hongkongers access to their bank accounts and pensions, contributing to “the suppression of principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,” the report said.
The report said HSBC breached the U.N. Guiding Principles by “only recognising that the reference to ‘all applicable laws’ refers to domestic laws such as the National Security Law, when in fact the principles also refer to applicable international human rights laws.”
The lawmakers urged HSBC to at least “demonstrate its efforts to respect human rights” by seeking advice on how to adhere to international human rights standards.
In light of the ramped-up pressure by Hong Kong authorities and National Security Law, the banks should also “be aware of their overarching human rights responsibilities and demonstrate the necessary moral leadership that has so far been lacking,” the report said.
The panel urged the UK government to demand that British banks unfreeze the accounts of political targets in the UK and in Hong Kong, challenge the banks to release the assets or disclose property of Hongkongers arrested or charged with an offense under the security law, and condemn British banks that support the draconian law.
“As we told the APPG in November 2021, HSBC has an enduring commitment to Hong Kong, its people, and communities. It is where we were founded nearly 160 years ago,” the financial services company said in a statement.
“Like all banks, we have to obey the law, and the instructions of the regulators, in every territory—including Hong Kong—in which we operate.”
On June 30, 2020, Beijing imposed the wide-ranging and vaguely worded National Security Law, which effectively banned dissent in or outside of Hong Kong. Then-British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the enactment of the law constituted “a clear and serious breach” of the Sino–British Joint Declaration.
The practice of British banks came under scrutiny in 2021 after HSBC froze the accounts of former Hong Kong lawmaker and pro-democracy politician Ted Hui and his family.
A day after Hui announced his asylum application in the UK on Dec. 3, 2020, HSBC froze his bank account along with the accounts of his wife and parents.
After Hui spoke to media outlets about the incidents, the bank briefly released their accounts before refreezing them under the order of Hong Kong police, who accused Hui of money laundering, misappropriating a crowdfund he had raised, and breaking the National Security Law.
Grilled by MPs from the Foreign Affairs Committee select committee in January 2021, Noel Quinn, group chief executive at HSBC, said the bank had to comply with local law and that it was not his position to “make a moral or political judgment on these matters.”
After launching an inquiry into the banks’ conduct in September 2021, the Hong Kong APPG received evidence from a range of respondents including individual Hongkongers, human rights organisations, and British banks.
A few days after China’s rubber-stamp Parliament passed a draft resolution of the national security law in late May 2020, HSBC’s Asia-Pacific CEO Peter Wong, who is also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, openly backed the legislation by signing a petition. He also voiced his support for the legislation to Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency and his opposition to then-rumored U.S. sanctions over the law.
Another British bank, Standard Chartered, also openly endorsed the security law.
Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said HSBC’s complicity in Hong Kong’s political crackdown must not be tolerated.
“The behaviour of British banks is cruel towards the people who have left Hong Kong and simply want to start a new life. People who have nothing to do with politics are seeing their pensions frozen. This is theft, pure and simple, with banks like HSBC robbing working families who want nothing more than a life of freedom. It should give the lie to anyone who thinks it’s business as usual in today’s Hong Kong,” Clifford said in a statement.
“The APPG’s report exposes the twisted acts of the Hong Kong authorities and the complicity of international financial institutions. There must not be complacency when it comes to doing business with organizations that turn a blind eye to the National Security Law, a vague and sweeping law that poses a threat to freedom in Hong Kong, the UK, and the rest of the world.”
