HSBC’s chief executive defended the British bank’s actions in Hong Kong, including supporting a controversial national security law and freezing the accounts of activists, during questioning by UK politicians who accused it of “endorsing” China’s erosion of democracy in the city.
Noel Quinn was told his bank was “aiding and abetting one of the biggest crackdowns on democracy in the world” by Labour MP Chris Bryant during a hearing of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee on Tuesday.
The chief executive had been summoned to explain a decision to freeze the account of former Hong Kong lawmaker, Ted Hui, who was arrested in connection with protests in the city in May last year. Mr Hui had received a letter from Mr Quinn this month explaining the bank had taken the action at the request of the police.
Mr Quinn told MPs he was “not in a position as a banker to be able to judge the motives or validity of [a] legal instruction from a law enforcement…