US businesspeople 'feel less safe' with Hong Kong security law

Survey by Chamber of Commerce comes amid growing fear of voicing criticism

Pro-Beijing demonstrators, who support the new national security law, protest in front of the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong on July 2. (Photo by Kenji Kawase)

ZACH COLEMAN, Nikkei Asian Review deputy editor

July 13, 2020 19:20 JST

HONG KONG -- American companies operating in Hong Kong believe that the city's new national security law is bad for business, with a majority of respondents to a new survey saying they feel less safe personally.

No companies or individual respondents were identified in the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong member survey, published Monday against a background of heightened fear of voicing criticism of the law or the government as well as growing tensions between Washington and Beijing. Despite their worries, most companies in the survey said they will stay put in Hong Kong.