* HSBC top Asia executive signs pro-law petition
* Bank caught between Britain and China on law
* Big business shows support for Beijing
(Adds context)
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, breaking years of political neutrality for the
UK-based, Asia-focused lender.
Asia-Pacific Chief Executive Peter Wong signed the petition
and HSBC itself "respects and supports all laws that stabilize
Hong Kong's social order", the bank said in the social media
post.
HSBC 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.
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.
HSBC was briefly caught up Hong Kong’s earlier
anti-government protests, with some of its branches vandalised
and the famous bronze lion statues outside its headquarters
defaced during a protest march on Jan. 1.
Some protesters accused HSBC of being complicit in action by
the authorities against activists trying to raise money to
support protesters, accusations the bank denied.
Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying last week criticised
HSBC for not supporting Beijing over London in the spat.
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.
Britain has called the law "authoritarian" and said it is in
breach of the "one country, two systems" principle enshrined in
the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, and also that it
conflicts with Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law, or
mini-constitution.
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)