Exclusive | Hong Kong’s American Club scraps HK$1.5 million ultimatum to non-US members after backlash
- Board members decide to give non-US members option to retain debenture or transfer to other membership types at no cost
Hong Kong’s exclusive American Club has backed down over a controversial policy change that would have required non-US members to pay as much as HK$1.5 million (US$190,100) to retain their membership or leave.
Instead, the club has offered them the option of retaining their debenture or transferring to other types of membership, at no additional cost.
The club announced the turnaround on Tuesday after holding a board meeting the night before to address members’ concerns about the policy change, which was said to have upset many non-American members.
“We have embraced our members’ candid and constructive feedback on the initiative and have made changes to reflect this feedback,” it said. “Our intention with this update is, and has always been, to preserve and increase the number of voting and non-voting members, further enhancing the diversity of our community.”
The almost 100-year-old private club stressed it aimed to foster an inclusive environment that continued to welcome members from diverse backgrounds.
“It is important to clarify that our membership restructuring initiative, which affects both voting [American] and non-voting [non-American] debenture members, was driven by our aim to evolve our membership model in a fair and inclusive way,” it said.
