Mao’s ‘Magic Weapon’ Casts a Dark Spell on Hong Kong
The United Front puts the squeeze on companies to support China’s national security laws for the city.
HSBC’s Asia head Peter Wong signs a petition in support of China’s plan to impose national security legislation on Hong Kong.
Photo illustration: 731
The photograph shows Peter Wong, HSBC Holdings Plc’s top executive in Asia, stooped over a folding table outside a Hong Kong subway station signing a petition in support of China’s plan to impose national security legislation on the city. When the bank posted the picture on social media on June 3, it sent a chill through the business community.
Days earlier, a former Hong Kong chief executive and a vice chairman of the Chinese government’s political advisory body had castigated the bank for not issuing a statement backing the legislation, as other companies, tycoons, university heads, and countries had done. It happened just as a campaign orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party—with the help of an organization called the United Front Work Department—was starting to drum up support for a move that the U.S., the U.K., and other Western nations have said violates the “one country, two systems” autonomy of Hong Kong that China promised through 2047.