Sign in to search for past news!
Oct. 5, 2022, 8:03 p.m.
U.S. lawmakers slam U.S. corporate executives' Hong Kong trip plans
U.S. lawmakers slam U.S. corporate executives' Hong Kong trip plans
['Kong', 'Hong', 'U.S.', 'sanction', 'Lee']

The Wall Street bankers are accused of ignoring Treasury sanctions against territory's leader.

U.S. lawmakers slam U.S. corporate executives' Hong Kong trip plans

Smith warned U.S. corporate executives that their future engagement with Hong Kong authorities and its Treasury-sanctioned leader will attract heightened scrutiny in the coming year. Tara Joseph, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, argued Hong Kong propaganda authorities will likely weaponize Lee's presence among senior U.S. banking executives in an effort to whitewash his reputation. "Why do [they] need to go and showboat in Hong Kong now?" asked Joseph, now director of development for the nonprofit Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong foundation. Hong Kong pro-democracy activists say that narrow framing of permissible interactions with Treasury-sanctioned individuals mean that visiting senior corporate executives render Lee and the Hong Kong government implicit approval and reputational boosts just by showing up to hear him speak. "Even if these engagements do not technically violate U.S. sanctions, they show the calculated risks financial institutions are willing to take to appease repressive regimes for profit," said Samuel Chu, president of the nonprofit The Campaign for Hong Kong. As recently as June 2021 Goldman Sachs and Citigroup were on a Hong Kong hiring blitz. "It's not business as usual in Hong Kong, and those companies who do business are going to have to grapple with that uncertainty for the foreseeable future," said Hanscom Smith, former U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong and a senior fellow at Yale's Jackson School of Global Affairs.

Sign in to see related stories!
Sign in to comment!