Buttoned Down, Fired Up: Hong Kong’s bankers come out in support of protest movement

Workers from Hong Kong’s normally buttoned-down financial industry gathered for a brief protest at Chater Garden in Central last night to lend their voices to the city’s long-running pro-democracy protest movement.

After about 15 minutes, organizers called for the group to disperse, while a remaining group of protesters marched through the International Finance Centre atrium in an impromptu flashmob, chanting “strike on Monday,” and “revive Hong Kong, revolution of our times!”

The financial sector workers — many of whom were still in office attire and without the face masks often favored by pro-democracy protesters — were just the latest sector to voice support for the cause. Last week, airport workers gathered in the airport arrival hall en masse to express their opposition to the government’s actions.

Organizers handed out fliers featuring a bold font against a yellow backdrop that read “No Justice, No Capital. No Freedom, No Talent.”

One of the anonymous protesters in the Telegram group that organized the protest was confident that the press would protect them from retaliation from higher-ups in their company.

“I didn’t wear a mask. What is there to be afraid of?” the protester said. “If they want to attack me for participating in the protest, I’ll reveal their names to the press and publicize their actions.”

Another participant said fears of Hong Kong’s future and eroding freedoms would have a negative impact on the city’s status as a global financial hub.

“It will definitely deteriorate the quality of the banking industry. People will migrate out of Hong Kong together with their property,” a Standard Chartered retail banking staffer, who gave his surname as Lee, told AFP.

The financial sector’s struggle against the erosion of freedom, participants said, was tied to their livelihood.

This echoed the view of Dr. Chong Ja Ian, a China expert from the National University of Singapore, who told Coconuts HK yesterday that Hong Kong’s role as a “crucial conduit for finance and other services… require insulation from the full nature of the [mainland] system.”

Originally sparked by a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, the two-month-old protest movement has evolved to include calls for universal suffrage and investigations in alleged police brutality.

Reporting by Cheryl Ho, additional reporting by AFP.