A U.K. parliamentarian group has called on Wimbledon to drop HSBC as its sponsor over the bank’s support of the controversial national security law in Hong Kong.
British lawmakers from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hong Kong wrote a letter to Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton, urging the tennis tournament organizer to cut ties with HSBC which publicly backed the city’s national security law enacted in 2020.
«This year, when 1st July is the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China, we must show Hongkongers that they are not alone, that those who support their oppression will not benefit from doing so,» according to a «Telegraph» report citing the letter which accused HSBC of profiting «from human rights abuses».
The 135th edition of Wimbledon will kick off on June 27.
Banking, Sports, Politics
This is not the first time that sporting event organizers were criticized for partnerships with banks in Hong Kong that backed the security law.
«Obviously Wimbledon, Liverpool FC and other sporting organizations should not be accepting sponsorship from banks which are now apologists for the Chinese dictatorship seeking to destroy the rule of law in Hong Kong,» said British Labor Party politician and House of Lords member Andrew Adonis in a report directed at HSBC and rival Asia-focused U.K. lender Standard Chartered in 2020.
