HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG)Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai said some of the city's biggest companies have given in to pressure from Beijing to voice support for a controversial national security law drafted by China for the city.
HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc were among the latest to endorse the law, joining others such as Swire Pacific Ltd and Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd.
London-based HSBC was earlier criticised by Chinese state media and a previous chief executive of Hong Kong for its silence on the draft legislation that's provoked renewed protests in the previous British colony.
"It is the cost world pays turning a blind eye to the #CCP bully," Mr Lai who owns pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, said in a post Thursday (June 4) on his Twitter account. "Enough is enough."
The new legislation would bar subversion, sedition and secession in Hong Kong, potentially undermining political freedoms assured for 50 years under the terms of 1997 handover by Britain to China.
UK-based bank HSBC Holdings Plc's top Asia executive Peter Wong signed a petition backing the law on Wednesday, the same day Standard Chartered endorsed the Chinese law.
The endorsement by both British banks, which rely on Asia for most of their earnings, have come in defiance of UK's opposition to the law.
Mr Lai, 72, and his paper have been outspoken against Beijing's tightening grip over Hong Kong.
The tycoon has long been denounced as a traitor by Chinese state media and was named as one of the city's "Gang of Four" behind protests that erupted the previous year in opposition to an extradition Bill.
Earlier this year, Hong Kong police arrested Mr Lai, accusing him of participating in an "unauthorised assembly."
In April, Mr Lai pleaded for help for Apple Daily as advertising income dwindled amid political retaliation and the Covid-19 pandemic.