Letter to HSBC Bank with UK MP's on Hong Kong Pension Funds

Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party joined United Kingdom Members of Parliament (MPs) - Chair Alicia Kearns and Bob Seely of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee - to demand answers from the London-based HSBC bank. Following a CCP directive, reports indicate that HSBC is barring British Nationals (Overseas) in Hong Kong from accessing their pension funds.

Chairman Gallagher: "On June 30th, three years ago today, the Chinese Communist Party imposed the National Security Law and collapsed the last, shaky pretense of “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong. 

Unfortunately, the British bank HSBC, which has significant operations in the US, supported and defended the law, which has been used to crack down on brave, pro-democracy protestors like the Hong Kong 47 and Jimmy Lai.

Now there are alarming reports that HSBC and other banks have been freezing the pension funds of Hong Kongers who have emigrated to the United Kingdom under the BNO visa program.

On this sad anniversary, alongside Chair of the UK Foreign Affairs Committee, MP Alicia Kearns, I have written a letter to HSBC demanding an explanation for these reports. 

Lawmakers in our two countries will not tolerate complicity in Beijing’s strongarm tactics. Xi Jinping seems intent on ramping up his aggression until no company can remain neutral. Companies like HSBC face a clear choice: get on the right side now or watch your business become a byword for corporate cowardice."

The decree fundamentally eroded the rule of law and Hong Kong citizens' freedoms of speech, assembly, association, and press. As a result, the United Kingdom launched a new visa program, offering those with British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) passports in Hong Kong the opportunity to live and work in the United Kingdom.

Chairman Gallagher and the UK MPs outlined the CCP's response to the UK's visa program, writing to HSBC, "[T]he PRC Foreign Ministry promptly derecognized the BN(O) passport. Consequently, Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund Authority (MPFA) instructed all MPF trustee institutions—including HSBC—to disregard the BN(O) passport and related visa documents. This determination effectively bars Hong Kong BN(O) passport holders from accessing their pensions. As much as $2.7 billion in pension assets, which are often lifetime savings of many Hong Kong citizens who seek to emigrate, may be affected as a result of this policy."

The letter asks the HSBC's Group Chief Executive, Noel Quinn, to answer why HSBC aligned with the Chinese Communist Party and refused to acknowledge BN(O) passports, thereby barring British Nationals access to their pensions when emigrating from Hong Kong.

Click HERE to read the full letter