HSBC has answered the call of the Chinese Communist Party

HSBC was being more than a little disingenuous when it claimed on Thursday that Communist party cells don’t have much influence on the businesses in which they are installed. Try telling that to Xi Jinping, under whom the CPP has extended its tentacles into every aspect of nominally private businesses in China.

The British bank was responding to a report in the Financial Times that it has become the first foreign lender to install a CCP committee in its investment banking subsidiary in China. While neither confirming or denying the report, an HSBC statement played down the importance of the cells, saying, ‘they do not influence the direction of the business.’

This is simply wrong. As Su Wei, a professor at a party school in Chongqing, has stated: ‘Party cells are set up to make sure the company’s operations are in line with the principles and policies of the CCP.’ While Xiao Yaqing, who heads the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, has said, ‘Party leadership plays an important role in team-building and corporate governance.’

Or as the party’s Global Times has put it, ‘Party cells inside private firms can help guide and supervise enterprises to follow the country’s laws and regulations and safeguard the legitimate interests of all parties.’