Money Laundering and Sanctions Evasion: Select Committee on China Holds Roundtable Examining Hong Kong's Role

Today, House Select Committee on China held a roundtable discussion examining Hong Kong's Role as a Safe Haven for PRC Money Laundering and Sanctions Evasion. 

"Hong Kong’s opaque financial system, coupled with the sheer volume of cross-border financial flows from the mainland, has made it a magnet for criminal activity. Reports have shown the city’s role in trade-based money laundering, shell companies, and fraudulent networks designed to move and obscure dirty money. Even more concerning, Hong Kong has become a staging ground for transactions that help sanctioned regimes—including North Korea, Russia, and Iran—gain access to the global financial system. This empowers those dangerous regimes and threatens the lives of the American people," said Chairman Moolenaar. 

"These activities are not isolated crimes. When Hong Kong enables sanctions evasion, it weakens America’s ability to hold our adversaries accountable, making it harder to stop nuclear proliferation, fund our national defense, or safeguard American businesses and workers from unfair competition. It means that regimes hostile to the United States can continue to finance weapons programs, fuel wars, and destabilize markets—all at the expense of American security and prosperity," Moolenaar added.

"Over the past two decades, Beijing has systematically shaped Hong Kong into its international hub for capital and influence. This allows China to maintain access to global markets, even when international scrutiny closes in…When the U.S. delists a company, Beijing simply reroutes it through Hong Kong. For example, CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker, raised $4.6 billion in spring 2025, directly supporting Beijing’s industrial and military-civil fusion strategy,” said Sunny Cheung, Fellow for China Studies at the Jamestown Foundation.

"The numbers tell the story. After Russia’s invasion, Hong Kong shipments dipped briefly—then surged. By the end of 2022, shipments to Russia had nearly doubled from pre-war levels. In just five months of 2023, Hong Kong exported $750 million worth of goods on the Common High Priority List—the very items most critical to Russia’s war machine. Since then, Hong Kong has remained by far the most important node in the transfer of both Chinese and Western technology to Russia," said Samuel Bickett, Human Rights Lawyer and Convenor of the US-Hong Kong Policy Roundtable.

"As a major financial hub and a bridge between China and the West, Hong Kong has emerged as a conduit of financial transactions between Chinese banks and sanctioned countries like Iran, Russia, and North Korea. Since the imposition of the National Security Law in 2020, Beijing has been cracking down on Hong Kong and has been exerting significant influence over 'special administrative region,'" said Kimberly Donovan, Director, Economic Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

Watch the full roundtable here.