Following the freezing of the bank accounts of exiled former legislator Joseph Hui Chi-fung by the HSBC Bank in Hong Kong, which raised concerns about the impact on Hong Kong’s status as a financial center, bank accounts of individuals and organizations associated with last year’s campaign against the amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance have been frozen.
In a post on its Facebook page on December 7, the Good Neighbor North Church of Hong Kong said, “Today (December 7) our only bank account was frozen for no apparent reason (we have not been able to open an account with a non-Chinese bank). In addition, our churchwarden, Evangelist Chan Kai Hing, also discovered in the evening that his and his wife’s accounts were frozen at the same time”.
The church began serving the homeless in 2014. With donations from people from all walks of life in Hong Kong and members of the church, Good Neighbor Church North has been able to provide 30 free places in Hong Kong’s North District, Yuen Long, and Kwun Tong, serving more than 70 homeless people to date. The church’s Facebook post said, “Even during the epidemic, the Social Welfare Department approached us several times for help in housing the homeless. The freeze will immediately put an end to residential services for the homeless, forcing the homeless to live on the streets once again”.
Good Neighbor Church North was registered as a tax-exempt charitable organization in Hong Kong in 2016.
FILE PHOTO: Good Neighbor Church of the North, Hong Kong (Jan. 9, 2020)
The church believes that HSBC’s freezing of the church’s bank accounts “is a clear act of political retaliation. For the past year, the church’s volunteer group “Operation Safeguard the Children” has provided humanitarian support at demonstrations.
According to the Good Neighbor North District Church website, the “Guard the Children, Continue the Struggle” campaign calls on the silver-haired community, lawyers, social workers and other professionals to take the front line of the struggle, in teams of seven to eight people.
But, according to a Facebook post from the Good Neighbor Church North, “In the eyes of the regime, we are all representatives of the resistance, just like the paramedics and journalists who did their part as Hong Kongers on the scene. The post pointed out that “the purges have never stopped, as in the case of former legislator Mr. Christopher Hui and his family, who have just had their household accounts frozen again and again. Is it not to the government’s liking that all have to be cut? This incident is really a serious blow to the religious community and even deprives the community of the freedom to work,” he said.
In a separate post, the Good Neighbor North District Church said that Hong Kong police have searched the church’s meeting places in Kwun Tong and Fanling, as well as three homeless dormitories.
Two women, a former director and a current employee of the church, were arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, police said, while a manhunt was underway for a couple who had left Hong Kong.
The police said that the group’s online crowdfunding, claiming to provide assistance to people at different levels and providing bank accounts for collection arrangements, found that the account received 27 million yuan between June last year and September this year, much higher than the group’s online announcement of 8.9 million yuan, suspected of concealing the receipt of 18 million yuan in donations, and found that the account part of the expenditure is inconsistent with the purported purpose of fundraising, suspecting that someone in the name of religion and support for young people to deceive the public’s goodwill and donations.
The police went to the bank yesterday and froze five accounts believed to have handled the money, involving 25 million yuan. The police also seized smart phones, computers, crowdfunding schemes and bank documents, are tracing the flow of funds.
The Good Neighbor North District Church said on its Facebook page that it “solemnly demands that HSBC immediately unfreeze our accounts and provide a reasonable explanation for the freeze. The posting states, “HSBC is impacting the bottom line of asset protection for all Hong Kong groups, individuals and foreign investors in Hong Kong, confident that Hong Kong people will take a stand with their resources and say no to injustice.”
A spokesman for HSBC was quoted by the Guardian as saying that the bank could not comment on specific accounts and related police investigations.
On the other hand, exiled former Hong Kong lawmaker Xu Zhifeng said that his and his family’s HSBC bank accounts in Hong Kong have again been frozen.
Earlier, it was reported that HSBC received another notice from the police on Monday morning (December 7, 2020) to freeze the accounts of Xu’s parents and wife. Later, RTHK reported that Koh confirmed that his bank accounts had been frozen again when he responded to a radio inquiry that day.
Within two days, Xu Zhifeng’s bank accounts were frozen, unblocked and then frozen again. Previously, Xu said that his and his family’s bank accounts were frozen on December 5, and later updated that all of his family’s HSBC bank accounts had been unfrozen, and his own account had been partially unfrozen.
HSBC has been accused of aiding Hong Kong authorities in the crackdown, but the bank said Monday that the circumstances surrounding Xu’s case had been “distorted” and that it must work within the laws of the jurisdictions in which it operates.
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