Major Taiwanese news group Eastern Media International recently reported that HK Chief Executive Carrie Lam commented in a TV interview that she currently has no bank account. With the passage of the Hong Kong National Security Law, the United States sanctioned 11 Mainland and Hong Kong officials immediately. To comply with U.S. sanctions, no foreign bank, no local Hong Kong bank, or even a bank that China fully owns would agree to provide services to Carrie Lam. Since she has no bank account, the Hong Kong government pays her salary in cash. According to Lam, she has “piles of cash” at home, and she only spends cash on her day-to-day living expenses. Lam commented in August, when the U.S. just announced the sanction, that it was “meaningless” since she has no assets in the United States and has no plans to visit the U.S. She said in the interview that, as the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, no one in the city is willing to serve her banking needs. When asked whether since the sanctions began, she has ever been refused service. Lam said that has not been the case. However, she did say she took the U.S. sanctions as an honor.
Source: Eastern Media International, November 28, 2020
https://www.ettoday.net/news/20201128/1864545.htm?from=rss