Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong accuses HSBC of political censorship for rejecting bank account bids
Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow were trying to open savings and current accounts for their new party, which grew out of student group Scholarism
Student activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung has accused HSBC of exercising “political censorship” in rejecting his request to open a joint savings account to handle the business of his political party, which will soon be set up.
Wong, formerly with the now-suspended Scholarism, also claimed the bank had rejected a bid to open a current account.
Hong Kong’s Scholarism suspends its work ahead of the formation of a new ‘less politicised’ student group
Wong claimed he and another core organiser of the new party, Agnes Chow Ting, also formerly with Scholarism, had tried to open a joint savings account at HSBC early last month to deal with donations and daily business for their new party.
“We were asked about the purpose of the joint account and we said it was for personal savings,” Wong said on Monday.
But he claimed the bank later rang him and asked about his parents, including “their names, whether they are clients with HSBC, their jobs and incomes”.
He declined to give full details because of privacy concerns and last week he was told their application could not proceed. The bank only said it was due to “administrative” and “business” reasons, according to Wong.
Wong later tried to open a current account at HSBC but was also rejected. “They just told me they could not process my application for a current account,” said Wong.