Britain's HSBC betting on China - it will be in big trouble if tension increases

 Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

中国に賭ける英ＨＳＢＣ、緊張激化なら大きな苦境に

2020.08.07 Fri posted at 15:30 JST

 香港（ＣＮＮ Ｂｕｓｉｎｅｓｓ） 英金融大手ＨＳＢＣにとって中国事業は長年稼ぎ頭だったが、中国と欧米の関係が悪化の一途をたどる中で、むしろ負担になりつつある。中国が同行の事業を制限するという脅しを実行すれば、ＨＳＢＣは影響抑制に苦慮することになりそうだ。

ＨＳＢＣは英ロンドンに本拠を置くが、会社のルーツは中国にある。収益の大半はアジアで稼いでいる。

中国国営メディアではここ数カ月、ＨＳＢＣを批判する内容が繰り返し報道された。一例として挙げられるのは、同行が米国と結託して、中国通信機器大手・華為技術（ファーウェイ）の孟晩舟（モンワンチョウ）最高財務責任者に対する起訴を手助けしたとの批判だ。この件についてＨＳＢＣは先週沈黙を破り、中国メディアの主張を否定した。

また、ＨＳＢＣは６月に香港国家安全維持法への支持を表明したものの、これに対しても中国メディアでは支持が遅すぎるとの批判が上がった。

中国がＨＳＢＣに報復するかどうか、報復するとすればどんな方法を選ぶのかについては不明な点も残る。ただ、中国メディアは、同行の中国事業が影響を受ける可能性を示唆。国営紙の環球時報は「中国ウォッチャー」の話として、ファーウェイに対する米国の刑事訴追との関連でＨＳＢＣが中国で法的問題に直面し、最終的に市場から締め出される可能性があると伝えた。

さらに、一部の中国メディアでは、政府が作成中とされる「信用できない」外国企業のリストにＨＳＢＣが加わる可能性も報じられている。

英レッドバーンの株式アナリストは、このところの情勢緊迫化により、投資家から見たＨＳＢＣのイメージには既に曇りが出ていると指摘する。ロンドンや香港市場での同行の株価は年初来、４０％以上の下げを記録している。

Translation

Hong Kong (CNN Business) The Chinese business had long been the top earner for British financial giant HSBC, but it was becoming a burden as the relationship between China and the Western continued to deteriorate. If China threatened to limit its business, HSBC was likely had to struggle to contain the impact.

HSBC was headquartered in London, England, but its roots were in China. Most of their income came from Asia.

In the last few months, the Chinese state-owned media had repeatedly been reporting criticism of HSBC. One example criticism of the bank was that it had collaborated with the United States to help prosecute the Chinese telecommunication equipment giant Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou. HSBC broke silence last week and denied Chinese media’s claims on the matter.

In addition, although HSBC announced support for the Hong Kong National Security Maintenance Law in June, it was criticized by the Chinese media that the support was too late.

It remained unclear whether China would retaliate against HSBC and, if so, what method it might take. However, Chinese media suggested the bank's business in China could be affected. A state-run newspaper the World Times said in “China Watcher" as a topic that HSBC could face legal problems in China in connection with US criminal prosecution against Huawei and eventually be shut out of the market.

In addition, some Chinese media had reported that the HSBC might be added to the list of "untrustworthy" foreign companies that the government was currently preparing.

Stock analysts at Redburn pointed out that investors were already seeing that HSBC had moved towards a gloomy outlook as a result of recent tensions. Its stocks in the London and Hong Kong markets had recorded a drop of more than 40% since the beginning of the year.

              No wonder the share price of HSBC has gone down in the past few months. It is a lesson to be learned by all enterprises and countries that are doing business with China: in order to do business with Chinese, you have to avoid offending China and do things politically correct.