The Hong Kong police have recently asked banks to freeze the accounts of pro-democracy activists, leading to panic among the Hong Kong public. According to Hong Kong bankers and lawyers, many Hong Kong people are worried that this tactic may become a regular practice by the authorities to suppress their opponents and have started to move their assets overseas.
Following the recent announcement that the exiled Hong Kong legislator, Francis Hui Chi-fung, and his family’s five accounts in HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) have been frozen, the Wealth Investigation Unit of the Narcotics Bureau of the Police Force froze a total of five HSBC accounts with the Good Neighbor Church of the North District and its leader, Mr. and Mrs. Chan Kai-hing, on charges of money laundering and fraud. The church allegedly concealed 18 million Hong Kong dollars (about 2.232 million U.S. dollars) in donations, and arrested two women and a couple who have left Hong Kong on charges of fraud and money laundering, and froze their related accounts.
In a video clip on August 8, Chen Kaixing said that his five-member family is now stranded in the United Kingdom, where they were on “sabbatical leave” with their families, but are now forced not to return to Hong Kong. He denounced the Hong Kong government for using this as a political retaliation to suppress social welfare organizations.
The Hong Kong police have been freezing the accounts of pro-democracy activists, causing panic among the public. Some Hong Kong bankers and lawyers have said that although the police have not taken much action, they have raised fears that freezing assets will become a regular tactic by Hong Kong authorities to deal with people who are “anti-sending” to China.
According to Reuters, Jimmy Chung, a retail planner, said he had opened a bank account in Switzerland before the “Hong Kong version of the National Security Law” was enacted on July 1 and transferred some of his assets in July. He admitted, “I never thought things would change so fast, so I decided to take more contingency plans.
In addition, Winnie also said that he had cancelled all of his HSBC accounts, not even his credit cards. Netizen Micky also said that her money had to leave Hong Kong first to be safe.
Two senior bankers said, “People who were on the fence are now taking action. They are worried that this practice (freezing assets) will become more and more common, and if they keep all their money in Hong Kong, they will lose a lot of money. Even some clients who had not participated in the anti-government demonstrations have been converting their Hong Kong dollars into US dollars to move overseas.
Lawyers advising tycoons also admit that there is concern that the government is using its power to freeze people’s assets more and more recklessly.
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