In Hong Kong, what you don’t say can often get you into trouble more than what you do.

That’s something UK-based bank HSBC is finding out the hard way, when two weeks ago, Hong Kong’s former leader Leung Chun-ying—who is also a member of China’s top advisory body—took to Facebook and singled out the bank for not publicly supporting a sweeping national security law that Beijing is imposing on Hong Kong. The veiled threat achieved its intended result: a few days later, HSBC threw its weight behind the law.