The Standard (St. Catharines)

With Hong Kong’s freedom gone, Canada and other countries can expect an exodus

- Gwynne Dyer Gwynne Dyer’s new book is “Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work).”

“We will grant BNOS five years’ limited leave to remain (in the United Kingdom), with the right to work or study,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the UK parliament on July 1. “After five years, they will be able to apply for settled status. After a further 12 months with settled status, they will be able to apply for citizenshi­p.”

The stunning thing about this promise is that it applies to all 3 million people in Hong Kong — almost half the population — who have British National (Overseas) status by virtue of having been born there before the former British colony was handed back to the People’s Republic of China in 1997.

They don’t even need to have a BNO passport (300,000 do). All three million of them qualify: “all those with BNO status will be eligible, as will their family dependants who are ordinarily resident in Hong Kong. The Home Office will put in place a simple, streamline­d applicatio­n process. There will be no quota on numbers.”

This is an unpreceden­ted commitment, and it’s not even a legal requiremen­t. Britain voluntaril­y gave asylum to 30,000 Ugandan Asians in 1972 when the bloody dictator Idi Amin confiscate­d their property and expelled them from the country, but we’re talking about potentiall­y 100 times as many people in Hong Kong.

It is a debt of honour, however, as Britain negotiated an agreement with China that Hong Kong would keep the rule of law, free speech, and freedom of the press for 50 years after the handover in 1997.

China has broken that “one country, two systems” deal, and Hong Kongers can only expect a thinly disguised Communist dictatorsh­ip from now on.

It’s right there in the new “security” laws imposed illegally last month by the regime’s rubberstam­p National People’s Congress in Beijing. New crimes include separatism, subversion, terrorism and “collusion with foreign forces,” the same vague catch-all charges that the Communist regime uses to suppress dissent in the People’s Republic. (“Terrorism” includes damaging public transport.) Maximum sentence is life in prison.

It’s not just freedom that’s over. As Chris Patten, Hong Kong’s last British governor, wrote recently: “If China destroys the rule of law in Hong Kong, it will ruin the city’s chances of continuing to be a great internatio­nal financial hub that mediates about two-thirds of the direct investment in and out of China.”

The decision has been taken, and Hong Kong’s residents have two good reasons to leave: their freedoms are gone, and the economic future is grim. Many will decide to leave, but where can they go?

For the 300,000 Canadian citizens in Hong Kong, the 100,000 Australian citizens, the 100,000 British citizens and the 85,000 Americans, it’s easy. Most are ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong who knew that you could never trust the Communists, and took out an insurance policy long ago by emigrating to another country and acquiring citizenshi­p.

Most of them even bought houses, but then they moved back to Hong Kong to be with their wider family and make better money. Many will go soon, because the Communist

China has broken that “one country, two systems” deal, and Hong Kongers can only expect a thinly disguised Communist dictatorsh­ip from now on

regime may start forbidding people to leave (it doesn’t recognize dual citizenshi­p). Others will gamble on staying for the time being, in the hope that if it gets very bad they will still be able to get out later.

For the 3 million more who have BNO status, it’s a harder choice. They have much less money, and no houses, no contacts, no jobs waiting for them in Britain. But they’re ambitious, they’re well educated and a lot of them are young. It would be surprising if at least half a million of them didn’t take up the British offer.

Just one little problem: the children of people with BNO status who were born after 1997 but are too old to qualify as dependants — the 18 to 23-year-olds — are not eligible for BNO status. That includes a majority of the young adults who were active in the protests and have most to fear. But the British government says it is considerin­g their case.

And one little doubt. It is still hard to believe that an ultra-nationalis­t British government that won the Brexit referendum on a wave of anti-foreign rhetoric, and a Home Office that still stubbornly maintains a “hostile environmen­t” for immigrants, will really keep these promises.

It would be nice if they kept their word, but it would also be quite surprising.

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