Hong Kong’s finance chief Paul Chan vows to do his ‘best’ and attend banking summit in person after contracting Covid-19, as event triggers political war of words

Hong Kong’s finance chief has promised to do his “best” to attend a high-powered banking summit in person next week after contracting Covid-19 during an overseas investment tour, but is also preparing to take part either online or deliver pre-recorded remarks, his office has told the Post.

The government is preparing to host the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit, the biggest event of its kind the city will have hosted since the pandemic emerged nearly three years ago. But on Friday advisers to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu were forced to defend the summit after two United States lawmakers said American bankers taking part would be “complicit” in human rights abuses by Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po was on a tour of the Middle East this week to source investment but tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday. He earlier said medication was helping him recover, and his office added the minister hoped to attend the event in person but was also making alternative arrangements.

“The financial secretary’s condition is getting better gradually,” a spokesman said. “If this is not possible, he may participate in the event via video-conferencing or recorded speech.”

Aside from the summit, Chan was also expected to give keynote remarks on Monday at the main conference of this year’s Hong Kong Fintech Week, which runs until Friday and is expected to attract about 20,000 global financiers and investors.

In a joint statement on Thursday, US Senator Jeff Merkley and Congressman Jim McGovern, both Democrats, said the banking executives should “reconsider” their attendance, which “makes them complicit” in human rights abuses by Chinese and Hong Kong authorities, and efforts to export an illiberal world order.

“Their presence only serves to legitimise the swift dismantling of Hong Kong’s autonomy, free press and the rule of law by Hong Kong authorities acting along with the Chinese Communist Party,” said the lawmakers, who lead the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

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“Their attendance has the effect of whitewashing the human rights violations of the Hong Kong government and giving political cover to Chief Executive Lee, who has been sanctioned by the United States and refused to fully cooperate with US sanctions on Russian assets in Hong Kong.”

The duo warned it would be “a pertinent congressional concern if expanded investments in authoritarian governments undermine US national interests and accelerate efforts to crush Hong Kong’s autonomy and the freedoms of its residents”.

In recent years, the city has increasingly become embroiled in diplomatic skirmishes between the US and China. Lee was among 11 Beijing and Hong Kong officials sanctioned by Washington in August 2020 over what it said was their role in undermining the city’s autonomy and restricting freedom of expression or assembly of residents after the imposition of the national security law.

The State Department last year warned American businesses of civil and criminal penalties if they violated US sanctions by “engaging in certain transactions” with targeted Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials.

The business summit, organised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), is expected to be attended by about 200 global financial leaders from more than 100 major institutions in the world including banks, securities firms, private equity and venture capital firms.

More than 40 of the global institutions will be represented by group chairmen or CEOs, including BlackRock’s president Rob Kapito, HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn, JPMorgan Chase & Co president Daniel Pinto; Morgan Stanley chairman James Gorman and Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters.

MSCI Inc, the New York-based company that compiles the world’s most widely used investment benchmarks, said its president Baer Pettit would also attend, but Citigroup’s CEO Jane Fraser has cancelled after contracting Covid-19.

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A spokesman for the Chief Executive’s Office said the government would support the HKMA in running the summit, which would “have a positive impact on the steady development of the global financial market and the city’s economic recovery”.

The organiser said: “We look forward to the thought-provoking, constructive discussions at the upcoming summit about how the financial sector can manage a complex set of risks and challenges and harness the power of finance to contribute to the well-being of the global community.”

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, convenor of the administration’s key decision-making body, the Executive Council, dismissed the US lawmakers’ accusations as baseless.

“There are no human rights abuses in Hong Kong and accusations of export of ‘illiberal world order’ are totally baseless,” she said. “Hong Kong is a rules-based society and Hong Kong’s rule of law has a high reputation in the international community.”

Exco member Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung said the two American politicians were trying to “sabotage” the summit, saying taking part was purely a commercial decision by financial institutions.

“The US politicians should not politicise the business summit,” he said. “If some American politicians and groups try to exert pressure on financial institutions, this will raise questions in the international community over whether the US is a free and open country or it simply doesn’t want to see Hong Kong resume normality?”

Participants had carefully weighed up the situation before deciding to come to Hong Kong, he said, adding: “People in the business and financial sectors are very rational and won’t be easily swayed by others.”

Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, argued that American politicians might want to play up anti-China sentiment to win voter support ahead of the November midterm elections.

“It is not the first time for American politicians to smear Hong Kong as well as mainland China as a way to express their hostility against these places in respect of their human rights issues,” he said. “They may have their political considerations as they might want to play up the anti-China card to get voter support in the midterm elections.”

But Lau said the effort would be futile as the American investors had their own business considerations about whether or not to invest in Hong Kong and the rest of the country.

“Their calls won’t have any impact on the American firms unless the US government issued an executive order to ban these firms from investing in Hong Kong and China,” he said.

“This event has proven to be appealing to investors with so many top US bankers planning to participate. Unless they don’t want to tap the mainland and Hong Kong markets otherwise, they won’t shun the event.”

Business magnate Allan Zeman said the two US lawmakers were sending a wrong message to the world about Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong is nothing like what they talked about. The financial conference is here to show the opening up of Hong Kong and how it is getting back to normal life,” he said.

“It just shows how uninformed they are. I would suggest they pay a visit to Hong Kong before spreading the wrong message,” he said.

Hong Kong on Friday reported 5,656 coronavirus infections, 390 of which were imported, and seven more deaths. The city’s Covid-19 tally stands at 1,903,349 cases and 10,365 related fatalities.