Hong Kong Watch
📰 泰晤士報 – 中國凍結移英港人的退休金
📰 The Times – China freezes pensions of Hongkongers with British passports
//Hong Kong residents leaving the country to escape political repression by the Chinese government are being deprived of their pensions because the authorities refuse to recognise a British passport issued to people in the territory.
Research by the human rights group Hong Kong Watch suggests that almost 100,000 people could lose access to a total of £2.2 billion of pension contributions because of the rules. The frozen funds will be held by banks that run the scheme, including HSBC, which will continue to earn fees from them.
More than 160,000 people have applied for the scheme, a response to the crackdown on civil and political rights in Hong Kong after the mass anti-government protests in 2019. But the BNO passport and visa are no longer recognised as proof of permanent departure from Hong Kong, making it impossible to withdraw contributions from the compulsory Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) pension scheme.
Hong Kong Watch calculates that around 96,000 of 161,000 applicants for BNO visas will lose access to HK$21.5 billion (£2.2 billion). Some £660 million is held by HSBC, which will continue to collect management fees worth up to 1.45 per cent per year of the amount invested.
“HSBC is not satisfying its responsibilities as a trustee of the Mandatory Provident Fund,” said Goodman. “It must explain to its customers why it is blocking access to their hard-earned savings and the UK government must ask why a London-headquartered bank is doing the bidding of an authoritarian government by failing to recognise a valid government issued document.”//
📰 The Times Full Article
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/china-freezes-pensions-of-hongkongers-with-british-passports-p7zv9vlxt🌟• Support Us •
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