HSBC Gets Order to Keep Protesters From Hong Kong Office
HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) obtained a court injunction to stop protesters, following two nights of confrontations, from returning to the plaza at its Asian headquarters in Hong Kong that saw an 11-month occupation.
The order allows HSBC to restrain any persons from entering the address without the bank’s consent, spokeswoman Helen Lam said today. “Such persons are restrained from causing a nuisance on the site or on the pavement or road surrounding.”
HSBC, which evicted protesters from the site last month, removed activists who converged there yesterday to screen movies that criticize banks as part of the Social Movement Film Festival, according to the organizer’s website. Security personnel dragged activists off the plaza. They were “illegally staging an occupation,” the bank said last night.
At least three people were injured and taken away by ambulance. Police arrested one man for further investigations, according to a spokesman for the Police Public Relations Bureau, who asked not to be identified citing agency policy.
“That’s so unreasonable,” said W.Y. Lee, a member of the organizer. She said the group was sitting outside the building to watch a movie and was not staging a demonstration.
Occupy Central protesters, the last major holdout of the global Occupy movement that started in New York last year, were evicted by court bailiffs in September following an 11-month campaign. While Hong Kong has seen its wealth gap widen to a record, stoking public discontent, the movement failed to attract demonstrators equal in number to those who took part in protest marches this year.
To contact the reporters on this story: Simon Lee in Hong Kong at slee936@bloomberg.net; Stephanie Tong in Hong Kong at stong17@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Douglas Wong at dwong19@bloomberg.net
HSBC Removes Activists From Occupy Site at Hong Kong Building
Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images
A protester is carried away during an eviction process from the ground floor plaza of HSBC Holdings Plc Asian headquarters in Hong Kong last month.
A protester is carried away during an eviction process from the ground floor plaza of HSBC Holdings Plc Asian headquarters in Hong Kong last month. Photographer: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images
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