* HSBC top Asia executive signs pro-law petition
* Bank caught between Britain and China on law
* Big business shows support for Beijing
(Adds details, quote)
By Sumeet Chatterjee and Lawrence White
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - HSBC's top executive in
Asia has signed a petition backing China’s imposition of a
national security law on Hong Kong, an online bank post said on
Wednesday, in the strongest show yet of support for Beijing by a
major global bank.
Asia-Pacific Chief Executive Peter Wong signed the petition,
the bank said in the social media post, adding that HSBC itself
"respects and supports all laws that stabilize Hong Kong's
social order".
The UK-headquartered but China-focused lender has not
weighed in on the political situation in the former British
colony in recent months, but has face increasing calls in
Chinese state media to make its position clear.
A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for the bank declined to
comment beyond the contents of the post.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the
guarantee of freedoms, such as an independent legal system and
right to protest, not enjoyed on the mainland. The city was
rocked by months of sometimes violent pro-democracy, anti-China
unrest last year by protesters fearing an erosion of those
freedoms by Communist Party rulers in Beijing.
China denies the accusation and accuses the West of stirring
up trouble.
The bank's statement came as tensions rise between London
and Beijing after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the
UK would not walk away from the people of Hong Kong if China
imposed the national security law.
Wong hoped the legislation could bring long-term stability
and prosperity to Hong Kong, he told China’s official Xinhua
news agency in an interview published on Wednesday.
Jardines Group, one of Hong Kong's original foreign trading
houses, published a full-page statement in the pro-Beijing
newspaper, Ta Kung Pao, saying it was important to enact a legal
framework to safeguard the city's national security.
"It can ensure that Hong Kong continues to absorb
investment, increase job opportunities and guarantee people's
livelihood," Jardines said in the statement.
The group's flagship company, Jardine Matheson Holdings
, is listed in Singapore.
(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Noah Sin in Hong Kong and
Lawrence White in London, editing by Sinead Cruise and Nick
Macfie)