Читать книгу Rebel City - South China Morning Post Team - Страница 30

While Lam and company seemed to weather the criticism from lawmakers and legal eagles, they found it harder to ignore another section of society.

Business leaders wanted the bill changed to exempt people suspected of white-collar crimes and they made clear that their concerns centered on the possibility of extradition to mainland China.

The American Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong’s most influential US network, warned that the bill would damage the city’s reputation as a haven for international business. The problem was the mainland’s flawed justice system, said the chamber. There was no independent judiciary, detention was arbitrary and trials were often neither public nor fair.

James Tien Pei-chun, honorary chairman of the business-friendly Liberal Party, said the bill threatened Hong Kong’s competitiveness. “Do you think investment banks like JP Morgan and Citibank, or AIA, would still set up their headquarters in Hong Kong if anyone could easily be extradited to the mainland?” he asked.

Significantly, there was opposition even among pro-Beijing business figures attending China’s biggest annual political event, the “Two Sessions” of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. One of them, Hong Kong’s former No 2 official Henry Tang Ying-yen said that while Hongkongers supported plugging legal loopholes that allowed fugitives to shelter in the city, only those accused of the most serious crimes should be extradited.

Meanwhile, two Hong Kong business groups backed a suggestion to allow transfers for the most serious crimes, but to exempt 15 whitecollar crimes, including those relating to taxes, fraud and money laundering.

Even the European Union weighed in, criticizing Lam’s government for not conducting a more in-depth public consultation on such a sensitive issue – and for not consulting the 20 jurisdictions with which it already had extradition agreements.