LONDON—HSBC is “aiding and abetting one of the biggest crackdowns on democracy in the world,” British lawmaker Chris Bryant told the bank’s chief executive Noel Quinn on Tuesday in a hearing over its freezing of Hong Kong democrats’ bank accounts. The CEO’s summons to face the cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee came after former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui criticized HSBC for blocking his local bank accounts. The bank is complying with its legal obligations and is “not in a position to judge the motives” of Hong Kong police, Quinn told lawmakers questioning him over the lender’s freezing of bank accounts of Hui and other pro-democracy politicians in the Asian city. “I can’t cherry-pick which laws to follow,” Quinn said, adding that the bank would have to comply with police requests in any country in the world. When pressed by lawmakers whether HSBC would ever deny police requests on ethical grounds, …