United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be sharing a virtual stage with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong at an online summit on democracy next week.

Pompeo, Tsai and Wong will be speaking at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2020 — moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic — on June 18 and 19. Pompeo will speak under the topic of China and the challenge to free societies on the second day while Tsai will talk about defending democracy during COVID-19. Wong will discuss Hong Kong’s battle for freedom on June 18.

The provocative line-up came after Pompeo’s statement criticizing British bank HSBC for backing Beijing’s imposition of the new national security law on Hong Kong, calling it a “corporate kowtow” to China’s move to end the city’s autonomy.

On June 3, HSBC China Corporate Account posted a photo of Peter Wong, the bank’s Asia-Pacific chief executive, signing a petition to support the National People’s Congress’ resolution to pass a law customized for Hong Kong that would prohibit acts and activities of secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in the city.

The move came after Beijing’s state-run mouth-piece People’s Daily warned that “HSBC will eventually lose all clients” if it remained silent on the law.

“Beijing has reportedly threatened to punish British bank HSBC and to break commitments to build nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom unless London allows Huawei to build its 5G network. Shenzhen-based Huawei is an extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state,” Pompeo said in the statement, adding that the U.S. was ready to support Britain against “Chinese Communist Party’s coercive bullying tactics.”

“Beijing’s aggressive behavior shows why countries should avoid economic overreliance on China and should guard their critical infrastructure from CCP influence.”

David Cumming, who heads investment at Aviva, the 12th biggest shareholder of HSBC as well as the 10th largest shareholder of Standard Chartered, another bank headquartered in the U.K. that also publicly backed the national security law, also made a rare public criticism against the two banks.

He said he was “uneasy” about the banks’ support “without knowing the details of the law or how it will operate in practice,” adding that corporate responsibility comes with making political statements. It was understood that Aviva had spoken to the senior representatives of HSBC about this issue.

Cumming said he “expected” the two banks to speak out publicly “if there are any future abuses of democratic freedoms connected to this law.”

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