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Letters | Why allowing a Russian yacht in Hong Kong sends the wrong message
- Readers discuss why ignoring Western sanctions on Russia risks Hong Kong’s status as a global hub, and ask the UN to step up its global peacekeeping role
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Hong Kong’s fall from favour with the West can be clearly seen in the US State Department’s outrage at the inertia of the Hong Kong government over the anchoring of the superyacht Nord off the coast of Tsing Yi. The vessel is owned by a Russian oligarch who has been sanctioned by the United States, European Union and Britain over his support for Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The statement by the local authorities that Hong Kong remains neutral and does not enforce unilateral sanctions holds little water when local financial institutions have ceased relationships with government officials currently under US sanctions. Former chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor once boasted that she received her salary in cash.
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Following the logic of the government, any institution with its primary base of operation in Hong Kong should have stopped enforcing these sanctions, since Hong Kong is in a league of its own in terms of sanctions enforcement.
Ever since the demonstrations of 2019 and the imposition of foreign sanctions on local officials, the relationship between Hong Kong and the West has been at rock bottom, coinciding with deteriorating relations between China and the West.
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Now, after two years of self-imposed isolation, the government’s decision not to enforce Western sanctions against the Russian regime contradicts its own stated aim of re-engaging internationally and of maintaining Hong Kong’s global status. More intriguing is that the Marine Department declined to comment when asked whether it had solicited the advice of Beijing.
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