PRESS RELEASE: CFHKF runs full-page ad in The Harvard Crimson, calls on specific American banking executives to boycott Hong Kong Financial Summit and speak out about CCP abuses
31 October 2022 – The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK Foundation) ran a full-page advertisement in The Harvard Crimson calling on American financial executives to drop out of the Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit being held in Hong Kong this week. The advertisement, which ran on Friday, October 28th, is part of the Committee’s ongoing efforts to condemn participation in the conference, which will be used as propaganda to increase foreign investment in the region. The Committee hopes to draw attention to the plight of the people of Hong Kong, who are suffering the loss of civil liberties under the brutal crackdown of the Chinese Communist Party.
The advertisement names financial executives who are planning to attend the conference including David Solomon (Goldman Sachs), James Gorman (Morgan Stanley), Colm Kelleher (UBS), Joseph Bae (Global Advisory Council), Rob Capito (BlackRock), Daniel Pinto (JPMorgan Chase), Noel Quinn (HSBC), Bill Winters (Standard Chartered), and Mark Carney (Brookfield Asset Management). It accuses these executives, some of them Harvard alumni, of aiding a regime that has arrested more than 10,000 political activists, incarcerated more than 200 political prisoners, shut down the free press, and repressed dissenting views.
The Committee has taken other steps to discourage participation in the conference. Last Tuesday, October 25th, CFHK Foundation illuminated buildings in the vicinity of the financial district of New York City with provocative messages calling on Wall Street to boycott the event. Additionally, CFHK Foundation president Mark Clifford wrote an open letter in the Financial Times and an opinion column in the New York Post explaining why financial executives should boycott the conference.
.@thcfhk projected images onto buildings near #NewYork’s Financial District that call on #WallStreet to boycott the #CCP-organized financial conference next week in #HongKong and highlight #China’s brutal tactics used against its own citizens. pic.twitter.com/bm6GRDw8nS — The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (@thecfhk) October 27, 2022
CFHK Foundation’s President, Mark Clifford, said: "Global international financial centers don’t have political prisoners. They rely on basic freedoms of the sort that have been wiped out in Hong Kong. China is cynically using these financiers to advance its agenda of normalizing the destruction of a formerly free city. At the same time that this conference is taking place, political show trials are being held in nearby courtrooms. Bankers should speak out or stay home." CFHK Foundation’s Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, Frances Hui, said: "By participating in the financial summit organized by the US-sanctioned Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, these American bankers are bolstering the Chinese Communist Party that has imprisoned thousands of people of conscience and brutally demolished Hong Kong's democracy. Investors and Hongkongers are watching: It’s up to them whether to do the right thing or be complicit in the Hong Kong government’s propaganda."
About the CFHK Foundation The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation presses for political and economic consequences for China’s failure to keep its promises to respect Hong Kong’s freedoms; supports the rule of law, freedom of expression, and the release of political prisoners; and urges the business community to stand against China’s assault on freedom and the danger it poses to Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre. Hong Kong’s fate is linked to the preservation of freedom, democracy, and international law in the region and around the world. For more information, please contact: media@thecfhk.org www.thecfhk.org @thecfhk