International executives in Hong Kong were shocked last year when the Chinese Communist Party pressured Swire, the British-controlled conglomerate, to oust the chairman and chief executive of subsidiary Cathay Pacific for failing to squelch the democratic sympathies of some of its staff.

Rather than raise objections to Beijing’s meddling, however, many foreign businesses responded by banning their employees from sharing or even liking news stories and social media posts about Hong Kong politics.