The Diplomat reports that some Hongkongers without BNO passports are being denied access to their MPF savings. This is the first coverage of the issue I’ve seen that labels it as ‘transnational repression’…
After Bloomberg published a piece on how Hong Kongers with BNO passports were being denied access to their savings, Hong Kong Watch and The Guardian identified two cases in which exiled Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were denied access to their savings due to their MPF accounts being “under investigation.” These Hong Kongers’ accounts are most likely being investigated following the Hong Kong government issuing HK$1 million (US$128,250) bounties for their arrest for peacefully advocating for democracy in Hong Kong and around the world.
Yet, neither of these individuals has a BNO passport, clearly demonstrating that the withholding of savings is not just an issue for Hong Kongers with BNO passports…
…representatives from HSBC and Standard Chartered will be invited to discuss the [BNO-related] topic in the British Parliament this autumn. In the meantime, parliamentarians old and new must continue to place pressure on the U.K. government to issue guidance to HSBC and Standard Chartered regarding the use of BNO passports as valid documents.
Again – if the authorities feel entitled to do it to BNO holders and overseas dissidents, who else in future might find access to their MPF funds denied?
In the SCMP, Mike Rowse looks at the Hong Kong government’s recent decision to allow the formation of new taxi fleets offering on-line hailing, electronic payments, some more modern vehicles and other supposed attractions…
…not a single new taxi licence is being issued as part of the exercise. The current number of 18,163 taxis is being maintained… All 3,500 vehicles covered by the new fleet licences will come from cannibalising existing taxi licences.
So this is not provision of additional resources. It is a reshuffle of those we already have. Taking into account also that all selected five fleet operators are players in the existing market, it is plain to see that for all the talk of a new era in taxi matters, this is largely a case of old wine in new bottles.
…if this is just a device to prolong the privileged position of vested interests [eg legacy investors in tradable taxi licences] and delay regularisation of Uber and similar services, then the public will not easily forgive them.
If this is just a device? And does the government care whether people ‘forgive them’?
In the SCMP – China gets angry again about the NED…
China has accused a US-based group of “ideological infiltration”, including funding anti-Beijing forces in Hong Kong and supporting separatist forces in Taiwan, in a lengthy report aimed at “unmasking” its operations.
In the report published by China’s foreign ministry on Friday, Washington was accused of “subverting state power in other countries” and “conducting ideological infiltration” through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
…“The NED has long been colluding with those who attempt to destabilise Hong Kong by providing funds and public support,” the report said, naming organisations including Hong Kong Watch and Amnesty International, as well as “anti-China lawmakers” in the US, UK and Germany.
…The latest report also accused the NED of working with Taipei’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party “to mobilise ‘democratic forces’ to open up the ‘front line of democratic struggle in the East’ and hype up the false narrative of ‘Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow’.”
Mehdi Hasan interview with former Chinese diplomat Victor Gao on, among other things, Xinjiang, Tibet and dictatorship. Gets quite brutal. Gao perhaps deserves some credit for getting into the ring with a more-than-averagely hard-hitting journalist…
Hasan: How many [Uighurs] are in detention?
Gao: Let me be philosophical…
Hasan: No, don’t be philosophical. Be numerical. How many people are in detention?
If the HKG government can, through its ‘control’ of the banks restrict access to MPF savings for anyone it deems to be in offence for whatever reason this not only calls into question who else’s MPF could be witheld…
…it calls to question what other investments or finances the government could take control of – the whole foundation of HKG as a business and investment centre is in doubt.
Let’s join hands to welcome more Mainland tourists! Because that’s going to be the foundation for everything else
There’s a lot of misunderstanding around the withholding of MPF withdrawals. It’s really nothing to do with whether or not the people concerned hold BN(O) passports. The rule is quite simple: to be able to withdraw your MPF funds on the basis of permanent departure you must be able to show that you hold a permanent right of abode in some other country. You can do this by showing citizenship of another country, or anything like a US Green Card, or UK Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), Overseas Citizen of India card, etc.
The HK exiles holding only BN(O) passports who moved to the UK on so-called “BN(O) Visas” do not (yet) have ILR – they are there on fixed term visas. When they have been there for the requisite period of time (I think it may be 5 years) then they will be able to apply for ILR. Once they have ILR then they will be able to withdraw their MPF funds on the grounds of permanent departure.
They are communists. If they can freeze the bank accounts of a publicly-listed media company and its billionaire controlling shareholder simply for expressing opinions the regime doesn’t like, despite the latter’s phalanx of highly-paid lawyers, then what chance does any other corporate entity or individual have? None, is the answer.
@Paul
Interesting. But it raises the obvious question of why have that stipulation in the first place? It’s my money, so why does it matter where or how I’m residing? Also, does this stipulation only refer to compulsory MPF savings (i.e. what about tax deductible contributions and special voluntary contributions)?
Let’s join hands to welcome more Mainland tourists! Because that’s going to be the foundation for everything else………………………………….
Wishful thinking. I went over to Horizon Plaza on Sunday. In the good old days it used to take hours to trawl the building starting at the top floor with pit stops along the way.
Now some floors have only one or two shops left. One is closed completely. The only caff is on the pet floor where the pungent odour of cat lit smacks you in the face as soon as the doors open. Many of the remaining stores are holding moving out sales.
I wandered in and out of one deserted store and the assitant thanked me, presumably for having made the effort to go there in the first place.
Nary a hint of putonghua at any of the fashion outlets.
Insomnia closing down after 25 years, the mainlanders not buying Zeman’s recent statement that Lee has “brought Hong Kong back to life”.
Despite clear evidence that the prudent approach would be to take stock and utilize existing resources, the adminstration intends to chop down every tree and fill in every pond to develope premises that will be redundant before they are built.
@reductio
The rationale for limiting MPF withdrawal is surely (supposedly) to protect people from their own shortsighted greed. But it’s long-established that anyone who leaves HK, and makes a solemn declaration to that effect is entitled to withdraw their MPF funds. I don’t get what it has to do with BNO.
BIG L: Please replace above with:
A police raid on a mahjong ‘gaming establishment’ (aka a private flat) netted 9 old people flaunting combined wealth and riches of (cue Austin Powers voice) .. 1200 dollars.
That means there was, at most, a little over $100 at play for each, or perhaps much less, if they had to put some aside for tea and biscuits. Were their Octopus cards also seized?
It’s lucky we have so many police on the payroll to take care of these afternoon miscreants, who can expect THREE MONTHS in jail (and a $10,000 fine) for a first offence.
Further, a Street View visit to Ham Tin Street suggests that this private flat was old, small and not exactly salubrious. Hardly surprising, since surely the only way the police knew was from a grudge-bearing neighbour. And that doesn’t happen to people in nice big flats with gilded lobbies.
Still, Gini and tonic all round, eh?