HSBC is learning just how tough it is to please both China and the West.
Pompeo is the latest politician to pile on HSBC after the company posted a photo on Chinese social media last week showing Asia Pacific CEO Peter Wong signing a petition supporting the law. Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the UK Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, is among the British lawmakers who have questioned HSBC’s decision.
The bank’s investors are starting to weigh in, too. David Cumming, chief investment officer for equities at Aviva Investors, which is a shareholder of HSBC, said in a statement Wednesday that «we are uneasy» at the decisions of HSBC and fellow UK-based lender Standard Chartered(SCBFF) to support the law without knowing how it will work in practice.
«If companies make political statements, they must accept the corporate responsibilities that follow,» Cumming said.
Even before the photo of Wong was published, HSBC faced a difficult situation. Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-Ying had earlier singled out the bank for its silence on the law, demanding that HSBC express its support.
And now that the bank has taken a stance, it still doesn’t appear to be winning over Beijing. China’s state-run tabloid Global Times on Tuesday accused the bank of harboring «a lingering ambiguous attitude toward Hong Kong’s national security law,» and pointed to a longstanding accusation in China that HSBC helped the United States build a case against Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou.
Meng is under house arrest in Canada awaiting a decision on whether she will be extradited to the United States to face charges of bank fraud and evasion of economic sanctions against Iran.
