National security law: international firms in Hong Kong must brace for political risks, analysts warn, after top US diplomat Mike Pompeo slams HSBC for ‘show of fealty’
- Mike Pompeo accuses HSBC of siding with Beijing over national security law and says bank’s business in China is being used as political leverage against London
- Political analyst expects many other companies operating in the city to be caught between a rock and a hard place
International businesses in Hong Kong will have to brace for increased political risks with little room to manoeuvre, analysts say, after banking giant HSBC found itself caught between a rock and a hard place over the national security law.
The warning came after the United States’ top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, hit out at the bank’s Asia-Pacific CEO Peter Wong Tung-shun for supporting Beijing’s decision to legislate the national security law for Hong Kong. Beijing’s move triggered the ire of the US, which threatened to remove the economic privileges it gives the city.
The US secretary of state also urged countries to avoid economic overreliance on mainland China and to guard their infrastructure from the Communist Party’s influence.
“That show of fealty seems to have earned HSBC little respect in Beijing, which continues to use the bank’s business in China as political leverage against London,” Pompeo said on Wednesday.
He was referring to Beijing’s threat to punish the bank by breaking commitments to build nuclear plants in Britain unless London allowed Chinese telecom giant Huawei to build its fifth generation or 5G network there.
HSBC, Hong Kong and Europe’s biggest bank, declined to comment on the matter.