Stevenson writes: "China and its allies are using threats and pressure to get business to back Beijing's increasingly hard-line stance toward Hong Kong, leading companies to muzzle or intimidate workers who speak out in protest."
A pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong in December. (photo: Lam Yik Fei/NYT)
In Hong Kong, China Threatens Businesses and Workers
31 May 20
hina and its allies are using threats and pressure to get business to back Beijing’s increasingly hard-line stance toward Hong Kong, leading companies to muzzle or intimidate workers who speak out in protest.
Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s former top leader, on Friday called for a boycott of HSBC, the London bank, because it had not publicly backed Beijing’s push to enact a new national security law covering the territory. “Neither China nor Hong Kong owes HSBC anything,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “HSBC’s businesses in China can be replaced overnight by banks from China and from other countries.”
Days earlier, a union representing financial workers filed complaints with Hong Kong financial regulators alleging that two Chinese banks had pressured their employees to sign a petition supporting the law. “Such behavior by a supervisor to compel employees to take political sides could be considered abusive,” the union wrote in letters to local officials.
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