PRESS RELEASE: Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation goes to financial district in to urge Wall Street boycott of CCP conference
27 October 2022 – On the evening of Tuesday, October 25, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK Foundation) illuminated buildings in the vicinity of the financial district of New York with provocative messages that call on Wall Street to boycott a major financial conference organized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) next week. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority summoned the heads of more than 100 top banks and financial institutions to the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit, which will be held in Hong Kong on November 1-3. The CFHK Foundation’s illuminations highlight the brutal tactics the CCP is using against its own citizens, and urges Wall Street not to lend its credibility to the authoritarian regime. Bankers should “Speak out or stay home.”
These illuminations come only days after the close of the CCP’s Party Congress, where President Xi was anointed for an unprecedented third term. Two high-profile prosecutions, that of Cardinal Zen and businessman and publisher Jimmy Lai, are among dozens of ongoing political trials in Hong Kong.
CFHK Foundation projected these images as part of a series of illuminations in the United States and the United Kingdom (see
here) that draw attention to the CCP’s crackdown on Hong Kong, a city that until recently stood as a bastion of freedom. CFHK Foundation stands in solidarity with Tibetans, Uyghurs, and millions of others who are suffering under CCP rule.
CFHK Foundation’s President Mark Clifford
, said:
“It’s outrageous that Wall Street executives are meeting with Hong Kong leader John Lee – a man for whom they couldn’t even open a checking account, because of sanctions imposed by the US after his crushing of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. Xi Jinping has made it clear he is willing to invade Taiwan. Wall Street shouldn’t be funding America’s enemy. Participants at the Hong Kong conference risk a stain like those who went to Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics. Wall Street has no shame. The Biden administration and the U.S. Congress need to hold these executives personally responsible.”
[Note: Read Mark Clifford’s new op-ed in the
New York Post here.
CFHK Foundation’s Washington Director Olivia Enos, said:
“At CFHK Foundation, we believe that it’s no longer business as usual in Hong Kong. We have seen our friends jailed, the free press shuttered, and other basic freedoms undermined. As a consequence, perpetrators like John Lee have been sanctioned. Yet American business leaders are wrongly lending their credibility to those responsible for curtailing the freedom of Hong Kongers by attending next week’s financial conference. Make no mistake, CFHK Foundation will continue to keep the Hong Kong people and their freedom front and center in Washington and around the globe, and we will continue to insist that those who are furthering injustice in Hong Kong be held to account by the US government.”
Full video can be found here.
About CFHK
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
