[noemon]

Senior staff at HSBC, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank are Chinese Communist Party members
The disclosures raise major questions about the independence of major institutions that operate in China

Hundreds of senior employees at British banks HSBC and Standard Chartered have been members of the Chinese Communist Party, according to documents seen by The Telegraph.

The lists show that at least 335 HSBC employees were CCP members. Current members include the senior vice-president of HSBC China, the president of HSBC’s Shenzhen office and the deputy manager of Hong Kong corporate and consumer products are listed as members.

Standard Chartered has employed at least 290 CCP members. Among active members who have pledged an oath of loyalty to the country’s ruling party are the deputy president of the bank’s Chinese subsidiary, head of investment management and head of business banking.

The names were revealed in a leaked database of nearly 2 million registered party members that highlights the full extent of Beijing’s influence. The Telegraph conducted its own research to assess whether senior employees still worked for the banks.

The revelation is likely to heap further pressure on the lenders, who have found themselves in the crossfire as trade relations between the US and China have deteriorated. HSBC in particular has struggled to navigate the conflict between being headquartered in the UK but relying on China and Hong Kong, which has imposed a new security law to crack down on protestors, for most of its profits.

In recent months there has been an increased pressure internationally on China over human rights abuses. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned “serious and egregious” human rights abuses, and refused to rule out a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics which will be hosted in the country.

Senior employees of a variety of UK and US companies appear on leaked membership lists seen by The Telegraph. Premier League football club Wolves are also revealed to be owned by party members, including one owner who holds a position of responsibility within the party.

Further questions are also set to be posed about Huawei’s supply chain, as the company’s sole American manufacturer Qualcomm are revealed to employ hundreds of party members including some in senior positions.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed the Chinese state had “bullied” HSBC into blocking accounts of pro-democracy supporters in August.Earlier this month, HSBC froze the account of exiled pro-democracy activist Ted Hui, which sparked further criticism from activists.

HSBC and Standard Chartered have both announced their public support for Hong Kong’s national security law, alongside Standard Chartered.

Dong Shuyin, deputy president of Standard Chartered in China, has won awards within the CCP, including “Excellent Communist Party Member in Shanghai”. Mr Dong met with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit in 2019, where the two discussed the growth of the party.

Mr Dong had described the CCP as an “indispensable part of [Standard Chartered’s] development in China”.

Two senior Deutsche Bank managers were also listed as party members. JP Morgan Chase also has party members in senior positions within their organisation, including an executive director who joined from HSBC.

US manufacturer Qualcomm was given special dispensation by the US government to continue supplyingHuawei despite an embargo on supplying the Chinese firm in September. Senior project managers, senior engineers and the company’s senior director of business development are among 227 employees listed as party members.

Two of Premier League football’s Wolves FC owners are also members, according to the leaked list.

Wang Qunbin and Liang Xinjun, who both work for Fosun, are party members and alongside Guo Guangchang own the Premier League side. Wang Qunbin spoke at a Fosun party event in 2018, speaking in front of a podium adorned with a hammer and sickle.

Qunbin is deputy secretary of the Fosun Party committee, and has a reported net worth of $1.3bn.

Fosun is also manufacturing the Sinovac Coronavirus vaccine, and works across real estate, retail and banking.

Tom Tugendhat MP, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Telegraph: “This is no surprise but a confirmation that a one party state seeks control over all aspects of society. We have long known that the CCP ensures that all who want to succeed have to join. These revelations confirm what many of us have long known”.

Bob Seely MP said: “We need to start thinking through the implications of this. The people on this list are effectively working as state agents, spying on our people or their own compatriots.

“It also raises serious questions for people and businesses doing business with HSBC and others, that effectively in dealing with these firms they risk discussing sensitive information with people who are alleged to be agents for the Chinese state.”

Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and HSBC declined to comment. JP Morgan Chase, Qualcomm and Wolves FC did not respond to a request for comment.

[Potemkin]

In China, businessmen often join the CCP as a career move. It's the equivalent of a western businessman joining the Freemasons. Almost none of them believe in the high-minded values of the Freemasons, nor do they even care what those values are. It's just a good way to network and make useful and profitable contacts with other businessmen and government officials. The CCP plays a similar role. Does this increase Beijing's influence worldwide? Absolutely. But people say similar things about the Freemasons. Businessmen are going to network, and nobody can stop them from doing it.

[Rancid]

I wonder if I can join the CCP....

[JohnRawls]

In China, businessmen often join the CCP as a career move. It's the equivalent of a western businessman joining the Freemasons. Almost none of them believe in the high-minded values of the Freemasons, nor do they even care what those values are. It's just a good way to network and make useful and profitable contacts with other businessmen and government officials. The CCP plays a similar role. Does this increase Beijing's influence worldwide? Absolutely. But people say similar things about the Freemasons. Businessmen are going to network, and nobody can stop them from doing it.

Not exactly. You don't have to be part of Freemasons to succeed in the West but you pretty much have to be a member of the CCP to succeed in China or atleast have very close connections to the CCP in some way. That is a huge difference. Heck, look at important and large businessman right now in Hong Kong a part of China that is pretty "liberal" by Chinese standards. Same thing goes for Makao but it is a bit of a different story.

[Rancid]

Not exactly. You don't have to be part of Freemasons to succeed in the West but you pretty much have to be a member of the CCP to succeed in China or atleast have very close connections to the CCP in some way. That is a huge difference. Heck, look at important and large businessman right now in Hong Kong a part of China that is pretty "liberal" by Chinese standards. Same thing goes for Makao but it is a bit of a different story.

Yea, this is much like how Italians had to join the fascist party to be able to even get jobs.

Is China a fascist state? yes. of course.

[noemon]

In China, businessmen often join the CCP as a career move. It's the equivalent of a western businessman joining the Freemasons. Almost none of them believe in the high-minded values of the Freemasons, nor do they even care what those values are. It's just a good way to network and make useful and profitable contacts with other businessmen and government officials. The CCP plays a similar role. Does this increase Beijing's influence worldwide? Absolutely. But people say similar things about the Freemasons. Businessmen are going to network, and nobody can stop them from doing it.

Do you reckon the CCP is as aloof as the Freemasons? The Freemasonic Lodge in the UK is the equivalent to going into a Greek coffee shop where the village elders play backgammon and talk about the weather. The only conversation is the weather, bingo and raffles whereas in Greek coffee shops its the weather, football betting odds and raffles. I highly doubt that's the same in CCP meetings.
In Greece because the elders stay at home and are looked after by their family rather than a care home they remain in the neighbourhood until they pass away and every neighbourhood has its own elder-age coffee shop, in the UK the Masonic Lodge is the equivalent of that.

[Potemkin]

Do you reckon the CCP is as aloof as the Freemasons? The Freemasons in the UK is the equivalent to going into a Greek coffee shop where the village elders play backgammon and talk about the weather. The only conversation is the weather, bingo and raffles whereas in Greek coffee shops its the weather, football betting odds and raffles. I highly doubt that's the same in CCP meetings.
In Greece because the elders stay at home and are looked after by their family rather than a care home they remain in the neighbourhood until they pass away and every neighbourhood has its own elder-age coffee shop, in the UK the Masonic Lodge it's the equivalent of that.

Not quite, @noemon.

People have simply forgotten just how feared, hated and vilified the Freemasons were back in the day, before they were taken over by businessmen and neo-fascists, and therefore became "respectable" in the eyes of the Establishment.

[noemon]

That they were once feared, vilified and all that does not mean that they are not currently a club for over 70's to talk about the weather and raffles cause really that is what they are. Some of these elder-friendly Greek coffee shops also turn into fascist or anarchist dens with time depending on the locale and the mood just like the Italian lodge you mentioned but that is not because they are "masonic" or "something" but because of the personal views of their members and the issues faced by their neighbourhood/"jurisdiction".

Mate the British freemasonic lodges take anyone in, are mostly composed of British public employees of over 60 year old people and their main activity is to run wicker-basket hamper raffles to sustain some kind of basic income every trimester. How is that anyhow compared to the CCP or the USA Freemasons of the previous centuries? The CCP runs China, the Masonic Lodges in the UK do not run anything in the state apparatus.

Back in the day, Freemasons run the US government and authored its constitution but those days are as remote to freemasonry today as classical Athens is to modern Athens. This is not an exaggeration, after all, the distance between the various Athens's is not one of time because even 20, 50 or 100 years after the age of Pericles, the distance between the Athens of Pericles and the Athens of the Diadochi was greater than the distance between the Athens of Pericles and modern-day Athens. Same applies to Freemasonry in the previous century and the freemasonry of today. Like the Athenians, American freemasons reached a developmental stage under which they became enlightened and these few enlightened men put these diamonds down on paper, but this enlightenment was brief, short and among a number of individuals that can be counted by the fingers of our hands.

I highly doubt anyone would have any interaction with Masonic lodges today if they did not spam people with requests for donations for their raffles.

[noemon]

Big Four auditors employ hundreds of Chinese Communist Party members
One Chinese Government website described a KPMG partner as making "the red gene take root in KPMG".

Britain's Big Four accountants have employed more than 2,000 members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including at least one partner in every firm.

At least 400 KPMG staff had CCP membership in 2016 according to documents seen by the Telegraph - with one partner praised by a Chinese state website for "making the red gene take root".

Meanwhile EY and Deloitte each employ more than 800 party members, including Deloitte's deputy director in China. Some senior staff at PwC are members too, including at least one partner.

The CCP demands absolute loyalty from members and is increasingly keen to monitor private firms. Relations between Beijing and the West have deteriorated sharply this year, with the regime accused of brutal human rights abuses against its Uighur Muslim minority and a crackdown on liberty in Hong Kong.

Tory MP Bob Seely, a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: "This is a bizarre and scandalous state of affairs.

"Putting aside any espionage risk, which is clearly highly serious in itself, surely there are significant questions to be answered about client confidentially. If I was a client of these firms, would I really want my sensitive business information being discussed by people with links to a one-party state?

"I do think we need to be clear about both the undoubted opportunities, but also the very obvious risks, of business with China.”

There is no evidence to suggest that any of the CPP members have prejudiced the interests of clients.

On Monday, the Telegraph revealed that senior figures in financial institutions including Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered were members of the CCP, as well as the owners of Wolverhampton Wanderers football club.

Yang Jie, a partner at KPMG China, is quoted on a government website praising the country's government and its authoritarian president Xi Jinping.

She is quoted as saying: “We often organise to learn the spirit of the Party and Xi Jinping thought to improve and arm ourselves.”

The site credits Ms Yang for ensuring that KPMG’s senior management pays attention to the party. It says that “making the red gene take root in KPMG and passing that on through generations became Yang Jie's main goal at work".

In 2017, Ms Yang took part in the CCP's 19th National Congress as a so-called honourable representative. She then returned to the company and “preached the spirit of the 19th National Congress” to KPMG colleagues across China, according to the government website.

A picture of KPMG staff holding a Communist Party flag, with the phrase “Huazhen KPMG certified public accountants Shenhzen branch committee” has been shared by staff on social media.

Deloitte
The details are contained in a leaked CCP membership list for Shanghai and the surrounding area. According to a verification report by tech group Internet 2.0, this list was extracted from a database management server on April 16, 2016.

A spokesman for the International Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) said the list's revelations were disturbing and called on companies to "set out how they intend to safeguard their values". Ipac was one of the first organisations to obtain the document in the West.

Many successful business figures are members of the party in China, including tech billionaire Jack Ma who is one of the country's richest men. Many Western companies believe that close links with the authorities are essential for doing business. The auditors' Chinese branches are also run independently of their UK arms.

Nevertheless, critics said the revelations were concerning. The Big Four audited all companies in the FTSE 100 index as of September this year, and earn millions of pounds from Government consulting contracts. They are also major players in other Western countries including the US.

Matt Kilcoyne, deputy director of the Adam Smith Institute, said: “Companies that have benefited from an opening up of the global economy cannot hide behind local cultures when they're found out collaborating with communism.

"China is not some small country of which we know little. It is the world's second largest economy, and its largest dictatorship.

Consumers in our society that disagree with CCP members having power over decisions at these firms, or who think companies should be less entangled with a country that locks up British nationals, disappears political opponents, and is accused of genocide against the Uighur, can and perhaps should exercise their free choice in our free society to choose another enterprise with which to do business.”

PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY declined to comment.

[Igor Antunov]

How many tens of thousands of registered US Republicans and Democrats run all kinds of firms and departments outside of the US? How many thousands of them are CIA plants and assets? How many hundreds of them engage in daily corporate and political espionage that is directly ruining entire economies, like sacrificial pawns just to spite China?

One case in point:



China is the world's biggest trading nation, world's biggest investor in foreign economies by far; and greatest manufacturing power with the most company startups per month - of course its elite will frolic in the power centers of the globalized corporate world making links and bonding ties, its stated policy is exactly this. Every one of these companies and everything inside them relies on Chinese supply chains just to keep the lights on. This is no secret. This is a non-story. Just more anti-Chinese propaganda spammed by the usual suspects, benign reality perfectly visible for years molded into some kind of cold war narrative. Just go down with the sinking ship already. Let the developing world develop. You are not fit to lead anymore. The US is the greatest threat and biggest roadblock to the well-being and future of billions of people.

[noemon]

US investors =/= CCP members

CCP members are sworn in and unlike the US, China is officially fascist.

This is the same as having Nazi party members at the core of western corporations.

The extent of Chinese malice is slowly coming out of the woodwork and more is to follow.

Chinese propagandists will need to offer a good explanation to the world as to why should a slave-labouring fascist nation manufacture all items consumed around the world.

[Saeko]

I wonder if I can join the CCP....

Of course you could. The only people who the CCP would never allow among its ranks are those who would take its official ideology seriously. Being a True Believer is the first step towards dissidence, after all.

[Wellsy]

Of course you could. The only people who the CCP would never allow among its ranks are those who would take its official ideology seriously. Being a True Believer is the first step towards dissidence, after all.

True that.
[url]rickroderick.org/105-hegel-and-modern-life-1990/[/url]

Real movements for Democracy are oddly enough most threatening in nominal democracies. That’s a principle of Hegelian discourse. In other words, if you live by an ideology, the most dangerous ideology to you is your own, because someone may expect you to do what you say. So, in that sense Communist ideology – as many of you know – was never a real threat in the United States, right. Very few Communists got elected to Senate and so on. It’s just not really popular.

On the other hand, our own ideologies of Democracy, Freedom, and Equality have been a great danger to our own society.

[Potemkin]

Real movements for Democracy are oddly enough most threatening in nominal democracies. That’s a principle of Hegelian discourse. In other words, if you live by an ideology, the most dangerous ideology to you is your own, because someone may expect you to do what you say. So, in that sense Communist ideology – as many of you know – was never a real threat in the United States, right. Very few Communists got elected to Senate and so on. It’s just not really popular.

On the other hand, our own ideologies of Democracy, Freedom, and Equality have been a great danger to our own society.

Precisely. It makes you wonder why western societies ever thought it would be a good idea to even pretend to adopt those ideals. Most likely, out of fear that the toiling masses on whose labour the entire system depends might rise up. That fear was, of course, well-founded back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now, not so much. Which is likely why our ruling class are beginning to stop even pretending to believe in their own ideals. They no longer fear the working classes.

[Wellsy]

Precisely. It makes you wonder why western societies ever thought it would be a good idea to even pretend to adopt those ideals. Most likely, out of fear that the toiling masses on whose labour the entire system depends might rise up. That fear was, of course, well-founded back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now, not so much. Which is likely why our ruling class are beginning to stop even pretending to believe in their own ideals. They no longer fear the working classes.

And may their complacency be their undoing and may the 20th century be a lesson that such gains were anomalies from struggles and not the benevolence of the state. Fuckers need their hands twisted to breaking point if need be to give anything.

[Rancid]

DOWN WITH DEMOCRACY!

There, I'm not a threat.

[Goranhammer]

It's not surprising. The most xenophobic people on Earth are Asians. They also have the least problems with senior officials in business or government going against their command.

For the longest time, the Japanese were buying shit up all over America where a Caucasian couldn't buy the equivalent of a fucking PO Box in mainland Japan. And they've never had worries.

America will multiculturalism itself into oblivion, no chagrin to the American left.

[Rancid]

It's not surprising. The most xenophobic people on Earth are Asians. They also have the least problems with senior officials in business or government going against their command.

For the longest time, the Japanese were buying shit up all over America where a Caucasian couldn't buy the equivalent of a fucking PO Box in mainland Japan. And they've never had worries.

America will multiculturalism itself into oblivion, no chagrin to the American left.

Are you saying you have to be xenophobic or nationalist to survive in this cold dark world?

[Goranhammer]

Are you saying you have to be xenophobic or nationalist to survive in this cold dark world?

Not sure I'd take quite that pessimistic view of things, but if you're a results-driven individual, there are methods and paths you take that might seem unfair, biased...possibly cruel to some.

It boils down to if you're someone who believes the ends justifies the means. Some try to win a popularity contest. Some just try to win.

[Rugoz]

America will multiculturalism itself into oblivion, no chagrin to the American left.

Will it though?

Multiculturalism seems to be to only alternative to demographic decline in industrialized countries.

Xenophobic countries might very well shrink themselves to irrelevance.