Hong Kong’s biggest firms take out advert calling for end to protests, with Swire and Cathay Pacific among signatories
- In the biggest campaign of its kind so far, 20 companies and five chambers of commerce published a letter calling for calm in eight Chinese-language newspapers
- The move came ahead of district council elections on Sunday which many fear could spark further angry clashes
Twenty of the biggest and best known companies in Hong Kong took out an advertisement on Friday in eight major Chinese-language newspapers calling for an end to the violence that has plagued the city for almost six months.
The firms, plus five chambers of commerce representing every major business sector, described the scenes of destruction in Hong Kong as “heartbreaking” in the full-page advert that took the form of an open letter to Hongkongers.
Their appeal for calm, the biggest so far in terms of the number of companies and newspapers involved, came ahead of district council elections on Sunday, which many fear could spark further angry clashes.
Among the signatories were Hong Kong’s major property developers including CK Asset Holdings, owned by the city’s richest man Li Ka-shing; Henderson Land Development; Sun Hung Kai Properties; Sino Land; Great Eagle Holdings; and New World Development.
It also included office and shopping mall landlords such as Hongkong Land, Swire Properties and Wharf Holding as well as the city’s airline, Cathay Pacific, and Sing Tao News Corporation, which runs the Sing Tao Daily News, one of the newspapers that carried the advert.
The advertisement ran on Friday in the Oriental Daily News, Sing Tao Daily, Ming Poa, Hong Kong Economic Times, Hong Kong Economic Journal, Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao and the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.
“Hong Kong is our home. For the past five months, we have seen fire everywhere at our home while rioters have vandalised wherever they like. It is heartbreaking,” the advertisement said in Chinese.
Companies warn of falling profits as impact of protests spreads to more sectors
The anti-government protests, which started in June against a now-withdrawn extradition bill, have become increasingly violent, frequently descending into furious clashes between hard-core protesters and police. The violence has discouraged tourists from visiting, while locals also avoid going out to shop or dine, which has hit the retail, tourism and restaurant industries hard.
Friday’s advert said the chaos had created challenges for the business environment and also challenged the “one country, two systems” model under which Hong Kong is governed.
“We cannot allow our stable life, which is the result of the efforts of several generations, to be destroyed,” it said. “It is the duty of the industry and commercial sector to call for everyone to stop the violence and safeguard our home.”
Among the signatories was the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, which was set up in 1900 and has more than 6,000 members across all sectors.
In the past few months, all three of the city’s note-issuing banks, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong), as well as Hang Seng Bank and Bank of East Asia, have also taken out adverts calling for calm.
Tycoons including Li Ka-shing, his son Richard Li Tzar-kai and Dhanin Chearavanont, the Thai industrialist who heads one of Asia’s wealthiest families, have added their voices to a growing chorus of condemnation.
