Ted Hui still in the authorities' sights, and consequently in the news, after going into exile

 

Together we thrive?

 

In truth, many people are not thinking well of HSBC and 

Hang Seng Bank as well as the Bank of China in Hong Kong 

these days (Photo taken back on December 8th, 2019) 

After Ted Hui announced his having gone into exile earlier this week, Home Affairs Secretary Casper Tsui warned that Hui faced disqualification from the District Council (in addition to having been a  legislative councillor, he also served as a Central and Western district councillor) if he doesn’t attend meetings for four consecutive months without obtaining the consent of the council.  This petty move prompted wags to ask what other penalties Ted Hui faced; with there being jokes along the lines of his facing fines if had loaned out books from a library and wouldn't be returning them in the foreseeable future.  

 

Well, late yesterday, we got a better sense of the penalties the Hong Kong government is intent on inflicting on him and his family (who also left Hong Kong this week).  More specifically, it was revealed that three banks had not only frozen his life savings but also that of his wife and parents; with the Hong Kong police revealing today that they had ordered this action because they suspected him of "collusion with foreign forces" (an offence under China's national security law for Hong Kong) and money laundering.

 

After going ahead and doing so, however, HSBC (whose initials many people outside of Asia don't realize stands for the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation despite it now being headquartered in London), Hang Seng Bank and the Bank of China must have realized that they were acting terribly, even illegally, by international standards. This especially since they were party to inflicting a collective punishment -- in the vindictive old imperial Chinese way -- on Ted Hui's family rather than just penalizing Ted Hui himself.  

 

At least one bank might also have concluded that the police are making things up as they go along.  How else to explain the latest twist in the tale: one that involves HSBC now having unfrozen his parents' and wife's accounts and partially unfrozen his!  (Note: we await the news as to whether Hang Seng Bank and the Bank of China will also do the same.  Since the former is part of the HSBC group, I'm going to assume that they will fall in line with HSBC in this matter.) 

 

Compared to the likes of Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Jimmy Lai, Ted Hui is far less internationally known.  But after reading the following Tweets about him by Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow's long time comrade, Jeffrey Ngo, I trust that people will appreciate why he is someone a good number of people respect and have plenty of goodwill for.

 

On the subject of better known Hong Kong dissidents now abroad: The Guardian has a piece today on Nathan Law, who Ted Hui has now joined in exile in Britain.  Something else that the two men have in common is that they had beloved pet cats which they had to leave behind when they left Hong Kong.

 

In the grand scheme of things, it might seem trivial but a recent Tweet by Karen Tse that asked "How do you tell pets they are separated from their owners because of tyranny?" contained images of Nathan Law and his cats, and Joshua Wong, Ivan Lam and Tam Tak-chi with their dogs, that got to me.  As did another Tweet by her featuring a photo of Joshua Wong's father in his son's room.       

 

I know I should feel cheered up by HSBC's reversal of their earlier action with regards to Ted Hui and his family.  But the thought of so many Hong Kongers having gone left these shores or currently behind bars is weighing heavily on me; and this all the more so upon feeling that it's just a matter of time before so many more join them.  For even while we in this part of the world know it too well, "the tyrannical turn in Chinese policy" sure is taking an excruciatingly long time to sink in still in much of the rest of the globe!