Established in 1995, the 25-year-old Apple Daily Charitable Foundation Bank of China (BOC) account was revoked for “commercial reasons”.

The remaining balance in the BOC account has been fully transferred to the other three bank accounts of the Foundation, which are operating as usual.

Chow Tat-hei, Chief Caring Officer of the Foundation, said the account was canceled for its connections to the Foundation’s Pay Tuition Fee Scheme, which was set up in February this year.

On as early as March 19, staff from the Foundation were targeted by pro-Beijing groups, who had protested in front of the Revenue Tower in Wan Chai to demand the Inland Revenue Department to revoke the Foundation’s qualifications as a charitable organization. That group argued that the establishment of a “student support account” was not a charitable cause.

While the qualification had not been revoked, BOC had soon reached out to Chow and brought up the Revenue Tower protest, expressing the wishes to revoke the account. Chow explained in a meeting with BOC that such an account was meant to support students who are facing financial difficulties due to the anti-extradition bill movement without considering applicants’ political stance, which meets the vision of the Foundation. However, BOC rejected his explanation, and issued a letter, dated May 4, notifying the revocation of the Foundation’s account, citing “commercial reasons”.

For an account that has been in existence for more than a decade, “this is definitely political repression,” Chow said. The balance in the BOC account has been transferred to the Foundation’s HSBC account, with no loss at the moment. Chow stated that Pay Tuition Fee disregards students’ political stance, therefore he is not worried that other banks would follow BOC’s action and that there is no plan in sight to cancel the scheme.

BOC said they would not comment on individual cases.

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