HSBC accounts of HK pro-democracy church frozen

HONG KONG – At least three HSBC accounts related to a church here that helped pro-democracy protesters in last year’s unrest have been frozen, its pastor said today, in the British bank’s second politically sensitive suspension in a week.

Fears are growing over the financial hub’s banking independence after the institution, whose Asian profits are fuelled by China, suspended the accounts of exiled former Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui and his family on Sunday.

“The accounts are still frozen,” Roy Chan, the evangelical pastor of Good Neighbour North District Church, whose volunteers aided the city’s pro-democracy protesters, told AFP today.

The latest frozen accounts belong to the church, Chan and his wife, said the pastor, adding that they were not notified about the freeze before yesterday’s action.

Chan, in a Facebook video, said he is now “living with an empty wallet” in Britain with his wife and their four children.

The church, in a statement later today, said police officers from the city’s financial crimes unit searched a second premise used by them, and requested contact with Chan.

The institution has appealed the suspension of the accounts in a petition addressing Peter Wong, HSBC’s chief executive in the city.

“This is no doubt an act of political retaliation... just like the asset-freezing case of the self-exiled Democrats Mr Ted Hui and his family.”

It added that the closure will affect the other services – such as homeless shelters – it provides in Hong Kong.

HSBC and city police have not responded to enquiries from AFP.

The bank has tried to stay in Beijing’s good graces, vocally backing the territory’s controversial national security law, prompting criticism in Washington and London.

Activists fear democracy advocates are being targeted financially to stifle the movement that swept across the hub last year.

Hui, whose accounts were unfrozen and refrozen yesterday, joined a growing list of critics who have fled the city since the sweeping security law was introduced, travelling to Britain last week.

Police have seized HK$850,000 (RM446,550) linked to a crowdfunding campaign, accusing Hui of “money laundering” and “colluding with foreign forces”. – AFP, December 8, 2020