17/04/23

UK: Innovate Finance slammed for hosting Hong Kong minister at London conference.

As published on cityam.com, Saturday 15 April, 2023.

Fintech industry body Innovate Finance has been criticised over its decision to invite a senior Hong Kong finance minister to speak at a London conference next week as the territory’s government continues its political crackdown.

Activists and MPs have hit out at the group’s decision to host Hong Kong’s financial services secretary Christopher Hui speak at its global summit, which takes place in London on Monday and Tuesday next week.

“I’m deeply concerned about Innovate Finance’s decision to roll out the red carpet for a Hong Kong official to speak, given the ongoing human rights abuses in Hong Kong,” Stewart McDonald, an MP who is a member of a group called the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told City A.M.

“It feels like an attempt to whitewash human rights abuses in Hong Kong,” he added.

Campaign group Hong Kong Watch also slammed the group’s decision.

“By offering the Hong Kong Financial Services Minister, Christopher Hui, a prominent ‘fireside chat’ at their summit, Innovate Finance is wilfully complicit in the Hong Kong government’s coordinated propaganda campaign to gaslight the world into believing that they are not undertaking an unprecedented and ongoing crackdown on political freedoms and human rights in Hong Kong,” Sam Goodman, the group’s director or policy and advocacy, told City A.M.

The criticism comes just days after a report by the campaign group said Hong Kong emigrants to the UK are being blocked from accessing around £2.2bn in pensions.

The territory’s government has ruled that individuals could not use emigration to the UK, under the British National Overseas program, as a valid reason to withdraw pension funds early.

“At a time when Mr Hui and the Hong Kong government also stands accused of denying thousands of Hong Kongers in the UK access to their pension savings, Innovate Finance would do well to consider revoking Mr Hui’s invitation and save themselves from the reputational damage of being tainted by association,” Goodman added.

InvestHK, the department of the Hong Kong Government responsible for foreign direct investment, is listed as a “gold sponsor” for the conference. It is unclear how much they paid to sponsor the event.

In response to the criticism, Innovate Finance said: “This is an international conference focused on innovation in finance around the globe and features a wide and diverse range of speakers from the world’s leading financial centres.”

“A core part of the agenda explores how UK companies can grow and expand through international partnerships,” the group said in an emailed statement.

Some Hong Kong activists are planning to protest outside the conference on Monday when Hui is set to speak.

Hui’s visit to London marks the first ministerial-level visit by a Hong Kong official to the UK in over three years.

Anti-government protests erupted in the city in 2019. A brutal crackdown followed along with the introduction of the National Security Law in 2020, which outlaws secession and subversion and makes it easier to prosecute pro-democracy protesters and opposition politicians – many of whom are now in jail or in exile.

Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith, an outspoken critic of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments, was also angered by Hui’s upcoming visit.

“It is imperative that we make it clear to the Hong Kong official in question that their actions are unacceptable, and that they are not welcome in the UK unless there is a significant improvement in the situation in Hong Kong,” Duncan Smith told City A.M.

“We cannot normalise these egregious violations and betray the people of Hong Kong.”

Hui and the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.