How do people feel about HSBC supporting China's new Hong Kong national security law?

London7766551

wmb194 said:

I couldn’t care less. China is an authoritarian, nominally communist state. You either toe the line or get your assets expropriated in one way or another. Hopefully in the future China will change but both HSBC, Standard Chartered and the companies that went into forming them as we know them today have seen centuries of change and laws that we’d now consider repulsive or unfair come and go. If feel you feel so strongly about this you should boycott anything made in China and every business that has any dealings there. Good luck.

What China does is up to China, I have no problem buying or using Chinese products in general, what gets my back up is HSBC (a UK based bank) is supporting the Chinese government over the British one. And on a matter such as this over the top (by British standards) law. I do not think such a position is sustainable if it were to remain in the UK. 

wmb194

London7766551 said:

wmb194 said:

I couldn’t care less. China is an authoritarian, nominally communist state. You either toe the line or get your assets expropriated in one way or another. Hopefully in the future China will change but both HSBC, Standard Chartered and the companies that went into forming them as we know them today have seen centuries of change and laws that we’d now consider repulsive or unfair come and go. If feel you feel so strongly about this you should boycott anything made in China and every business that has any dealings there. Good luck.

What China does is up to China, I have no problem buying or using Chinese products in general, what gets my back up is HSBC (a UK based bank) is supporting the Chinese government over the British one. I do not think such a position is sustainable if it were to remain in the UK.

Albeit an extremely big bank, it’s just a bank. You shouldn’t expect so much of it. Its aim is survival and I don’t think for one minute that its position in Britain is now unsustainable. Why should it be? It’s not owned by the government and, just as we all can, it can agree or disagree as it pleases. Unlike China, Britain isn’t an authoritarian state. Which would you be more concerned about agreeing with? It won’t be long before this is all forgotten. If you have an issue with this law then you should have an issue with China.

London7766551

wmb194 said:

London7766551 said:

wmb194 said:

I couldn’t care less. China is an authoritarian, nominally communist state. You either toe the line or get your assets expropriated in one way or another. Hopefully in the future China will change but both HSBC, Standard Chartered and the companies that went into forming them as we know them today have seen centuries of change and laws that we’d now consider repulsive or unfair come and go. If feel you feel so strongly about this you should boycott anything made in China and every business that has any dealings there. Good luck.

What China does is up to China, I have no problem buying or using Chinese products in general, what gets my back up is HSBC (a UK based bank) is supporting the Chinese government over the British one. I do not think such a position is sustainable if it were to remain in the UK.

Albeit an extremely big bank, it’s just a bank. You shouldn’t expect so much of it. Its aim is survival and I don’t think for one minute that its position in Britain is now unsustainable. Why should it be? It’s not owned by the government and, just as we all can, it can agree or disagree as it pleases. Unlike China, Britain isn’t an authoritarian state. Which would you be more concerned about agreeing with? It won’t be long before this is all forgotten. If you have an issue with this law then you should have an issue with China.

Well, I have an issue with the law/China in regards to Hong Kong as a British person, but I can't blame China, I do blame HSBC for their position. I will be very disappointed if this is allowed to be forgotten. And I think HSBC's future may be unsuitable here, because it is very possible the west will turn away from China and many things related to it, if HSBC is more recognised as a Chinese bank rather than a British one, it is sure to cause it issues. Why would HSBC want the hassle? It is already apparent they don't make most of their money here, and they are already speaking about selling off various arms. I only hope people think with their feet and move away from this "British" bank.

wmb194

London7766551 said:

wmb194 said:

London7766551 said:

wmb194 said:

I couldn’t care less. China is an authoritarian, nominally communist state. You either toe the line or get your assets expropriated in one way or another. Hopefully in the future China will change but both HSBC, Standard Chartered and the companies that went into forming them as we know them today have seen centuries of change and laws that we’d now consider repulsive or unfair come and go. If feel you feel so strongly about this you should boycott anything made in China and every business that has any dealings there. Good luck.

What China does is up to China, I have no problem buying or using Chinese products in general, what gets my back up is HSBC (a UK based bank) is supporting the Chinese government over the British one. I do not think such a position is sustainable if it were to remain in the UK.

Albeit an extremely big bank, it’s just a bank. You shouldn’t expect so much of it. Its aim is survival and I don’t think for one minute that its position in Britain is now unsustainable. Why should it be? It’s not owned by the government and, just as we all can, it can agree or disagree as it pleases. Unlike China, Britain isn’t an authoritarian state. Which would you be more concerned about agreeing with? It won’t be long before this is all forgotten. If you have an issue with this law then you should have an issue with China.

Well, I have an issue with the law/China in regards to Hong Kong as a British person, but I can't blame China, I do blame HSBC for their position. I will be very disappointed if this is allowed to be forgotten. And I think HSBC's future may be unsuitable here, because it is very possible the west will turn away from China and many things related to it, if HSBC is more recognised as a Chinese bank rather than a British one, it is sure to cause it issues. Why would HSBC want the hassle? It is already apparent they don't make most of their money here, and they are already speaking about selling off various arms. I only hope people think with their feet and move away from this "British" bank.

I doubt it will be a hassle. It operates in lots and lost of places with varying profitability and obviously it has its roots here. If it has PR issues with the HSBC name it could rebrand itself e.g., back to Midland Bank. It's simply the nature of being a multinational. There are always different governments trying to pull them in different directions and they navigate it by adopting (commercial) realpolitik. If they pulled out of every country after every little disagreement they wouldn't last long. If you don't have a problem with China's laws why should you mind what HSBC's or Standard Chartered's positions are? No doubt if the law changed back they'd support that, too.

General_Grant

I wonder what the H and S are abbreviations for.

digalumps

You don't explicitly say what you hope to achieve by closing your accounts but if it is to 'punish' them then the best way to do this is to keep your accounts open as this will incur a cost to them -  in fact, open as many accounts with them as you can and use them as much as possible.

gt94sss2

If you read the statement in the original post, HSBC said:
---
 “We reiterate that we respect and support laws and regulations that will enable Hong Kong to recover and rebuild the economy and, at the same time, maintain the principle of ‘one country two systems’.”
---
It actually reads as if HSBC support the current status quo - as most would argue that China's actions don't support the principle of 'one country two systems' and are going to harm Hong Kong's economy.
Obviously HSBC and other firms have been forced to say "something" - and it depends on how you read it (or how journalists spin it)

pinkdalek

What next boycott anything made in China?  
The UK Government is offering HK citizens British citizenship, if you are not happy with that bank move away from them.
The United Kingdom is far from innocent in matters of taking over other countries and imposing its rules, and then sulking when people want to come back and live with us when we leave.

margaretx9

Banks doing morality - that would be a first. They are the Hong Kong and Shanghai banking corporation - China is doing nothing they haven’t done elsewhere for decades like in Tibet or to the Uighurs. Instability is bad for HSBC’s business and money comes before minor issues like democracy and human rights.

Didnt they also get found out and fined a couple of years ago for essentially doing money laundering for drug dealers and global organised crime.

If you care about morality don’t bother with any bank - open a bank account with the Cumberland building society if you can.

And at least HSBC generally  pay better savings rates than say Nationwide and don’t waste their money on tacky chavvy ads either!

London7766551

margaretx9 said:

Banks doing morality - that would be a first. They are the Hong Kong and Shanghai banking corporation - China is doing nothing they haven’t done elsewhere for decades like in Tibet or to the Uighurs. Instability is bad for HSBC’s business and money comes before minor issues like democracy and human rights.

Didnt they also get found out and fined a couple of years ago for essentially doing money laundering for drug dealers and global organised crime.

If you care about morality don’t bother with any bank - open a bank account with the Cumberland building society if you can.

And at least HSBC generally  pay better savings rates than say Nationwide and don’t waste their money on tacky chavvy ads either!

Do you bank with Cumberland?, I live in London so doubt there is a branch here. Edit: Cumberland would seem to allow me a current account but some of the savers are locals only.

I was looking at nationwide as this seems to be one of the less in-tangled organisations. Or Virgin Money.