Mainland banks, pro-Beijing businesses caught in Hong Kong protest cross-hairs (updated)

Boc Hong Kong Holdings

02/10/2019 10:16

* Chinese banks including Bank of China, China CITIC
targeted
    * Hong Kong had 22 mainland Chinese banks in Hong Kong in
2018
    * Bank of China Hong Kong expresses anger over violent acts 

 (Adds quotes, details paragraphs 5-15)
    By Sumeet Chatterjee and Anne Marie Roantree
    HONG KONG, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Hong Kong anti-government
protesters are increasingly focusing their anger on mainland
Chinese businesses and those with pro-Beijing links, daubing
graffiti on store fronts and vandalising outlets in the heart of
the financial centre. 
    Protesters took aim at some of China's largest banks at the
weekend, spray-painting anti-China slogans on shuttered branches
 and trashing ATM machines of outlets such as Bank of China's
Hong unit  2388.HK , while nearby international counterparts
such as Standard Chartered  STAN.L  escaped untouched.
    Another target was shops operated by Maxim's Caterers,
including American coffee chain Starbucks Corp  SBUX.O , after
the daughter of the Hong Kong company's founder condemned the
protesters at the United Nations human rights council in Geneva.
    Demonstrators scrawled anti-China graffiti on several
Starbucks outlets, including in the bustling tourist and
business districts of Causeway Bay and Admiralty.
    Protesters' growing anger towards the local branches of
Chinese banks comes at a bad time for the lenders, as their
businesses are also expected to take a hit from the city's
economy facing its first recession in a decade.
    Hong Kong had 22 licensed banks from mainland China in 2018,
the most number of banks from any country, according to the Hong
Kong Monetary Authority. The mainland banks accounted for 37% of
total Hong Kong banking assets last year.         
    In the past few days, as thousands of protesters marched
through the heart of the financial centre, a small group of
black-clad protesters frantically pasted posters and
spray-painted expletives on shuttered branches of Chinese banks.
    In the commercial and night life district of Wan Chai on
Sunday, a branch of China CITIC Bank International, the offshore
banking arm of conglomerate CITIC Group, was plastered with
posters of protesters' demands to the government. A StanChart
bank branch next door was untouched. 
    
    "DEEPEST ANGER"
    "This protest is against China's efforts to restrict our
freedom, and we will target all the pro-China business groups
who don't speak out against that," said IT professional Ronald,
as he plastered a poster on the closed glass door of the bank.
    Also on Sunday, a group of protesters tried to smash cameras
over ATMs of Bank of China Hong Kong branch in Wan Chai and
spray-painted machine screens, while on Tuesday they threw
petrol bombs at the shuttered branch of Nanyang Commercial Bank.
    On Wednesday, Bank of China Hong Kong said two of its city
branches would remain closed due to vandalism. In a separate
Chinese statement, the bank expressed its "deepest anger over
the illegal violent behaviour".
    Anti-government protests turned violent early on Tuesday and
continued into the night, with intense cat-and-mouse skirmishes
marring celebrations in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of
the founding of the People's Republic of China.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N26M05A
    The targeting of the banks in Hong Kong comes weeks after a
group of protesters ran online campaigns urging people in Hong
Kong to withdraw money from the Hong Kong branches of the
Chinese lenders.       
    "This protest is sparked because the Hong Kong government
and the PRC (People's Republic of China) keep curbing our
freedom and our core values," said Chan, a 25-year-old
accountant and protester. 
    "The vandalism and damage to the Chinese bank actually also
reflects the fact that we don't want our assets and freedom
being kept by the Chinese authority. It has a symbolic meaning
which is the same as the proposal of money withdrawal."
    Companies across Hong Kong, the Asian base for many global
businesses, are walking a tightrope between the protesters and
China's Communist Party rulers in Beijing. 
    Cathay Pacific Airways  0293.HK  became the biggest
corporate casualty when China demanded in August that it suspend
staff involved in the protest movement that has plunged Hong
Kong into its biggest political crisis in decades.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N25C23J
    At least 20 pilots and cabin crew have since been fired, the
Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions has said.

 (Reporting By Anne Marie Roantree, Sumeet Chatterjee and Felix
Tam; additional reporting by Alun John, David Kirton and Twinnie
Siu; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Philippa Fletcher)
 ((annemarie.roantree@thomsonreuters.com; +852 97387151; Reuters
Messaging: annemarie.roantree.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))