Pro-establishment lawmakers urge the government to regulate online crowdfunding activities, accusing some of them for sponsoring democratic movements in “liberating Hong Kong”.

Alice Mak Mei-kuen from the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions said some online crowdfunding platforms called for “mutually destructive acts” such as urging foreign governments to impose sanctions against Hong Kong.

“They can start any crowdfunding with a single line of political slogan, and no one can monitor how the money raised is used,” Mak said in the weekly meeting of Legislative Council this morning.

Mak said the slogan “liberating Hong Kong” would be one inciting subversion of state power after the national security law is imposed, and crowdfunding through overseas platform would amount to collusion with external forces.

Several crowdfunding platforms had been initiated after the Anti-Extradition Bill movement started in June last year, among which some of them such as 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund and Spark Alliance raised funds to assist protesters in different ways such as lawsuits and medical treatment.

Sonny Au Chi-kwong, Under Secretary for Security, stressed that the police have already arrested some online crowdfunding initiators earlier for suspected money laundering, and the police would take further actions if there are provisions in the upcoming national security law regulating crowdfunding activities.

But Steven Ho Chun-yin from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong was unsatisfied, as he slammed the police for not taking actions against pro-democracy camps, who set up fundraising booths during mass protests. He also coined such fund-raising activities as political fraud.

Christopher Hui Ching-yu, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, explained that crowdfunding activities with different purposes and nature are regulated by different legislations, and investigations and prosecutions would be made if money laundering or scams are involved.

He added that whether crowdfunding activities are performed online is not the concern of regulations in foreign countries.

Lam Cheuk-ting from the Democratic Party, who started an online crowdfunding campaign named “Wolf Hunting” to bring the former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to justice for his financial dealings with an Australian firm UGL, was worried that the pro-Beijing camp was in fact trying to staunch the source of income of the democrats.

Lam said the pro-democracy camps have relatively less resources, “unlike the pro-establishment camps who can easily raise tens of millions from one single calligraphy from the Liaison Office.”

He stressed that online crowdfunding activities are "totally legal".

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