UK offers passport aid to Hong Kong citizens as China tightens regulations
Protesters say law undermines civil liberties and could suppress activism,
THE UK is to offer Hong Kong residents a “path to citizenship” if China does not back down on tightening restrictions.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he was “deeply troubled” that China has voted to overrule Hong Kong’s autonomy and implement its national security laws this afternoon.
He said if the Chinese government did not “step back from the brink” the UK would waive the six month limit currently imposed on British National Overseas (BNO) passport holders in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong residents were able to apply for a BNO passport after 1997 when the sovereignty for the territory passed to China. There are currently an estimated 143,000 BNO passport holders.
Mr Raab said: “BNO passport holders currently have the right to come to the UK for six months. If China continues down this path and implements this national security legislation we will change that status, and we will remove that six month limit and allow those BNO passport holders to come to the UK and to apply to work and study for extendable periods of 12 months and that would itself provide a pathway to future citizenship.”
The Foreign Secretary added that the UK, USA, Canada and Australia had been in discussions about the Chinese developments, and said: “We are deeply troubled about this step. The decision now lies with China but if it follows through on this legislation and implements it, it would clearly violate the autonomy of the people of Hong Kong and it would also violate the freedoms set out in the Uk-china Joint Declaration.”
The Liberal Democrats have taken the offer of help one step further, and are calling for the UK Government to give all 7.5million Hong Kong residents the option of getting a BNO passport.
Libdem foreign affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: “This move would be a welcome step. Beijing has repeatedly shown contempt for the
Sino-british Declaration. Under that, the UK has a duty to the people of Hong Kong.
“The Government must now ensure the passport is not an empty promise. Relatively few people have a BNO Passport as the scheme was closed years ago. The cross-party Hong Kong Bill, would reopen the passport offer to also give young Hong Kongers the right to live in the UK. I am urging the Government to do this as a priority.”
CHINA’S ceremonial legislature has endorsed a national security law for Hong Kong that has strained relations with the UK and the US.
The National People’s Congress approved the bill as it wrapped up an annual session held under intensive anti-coronavirus controls.
The Hong Kong security law will alter the territory’s mini-constitution, or Basic Law, to require its government to enforce measures to be decided later by Chinese leaders.
The measure and the way it is being enacted prompted Washington to announce it no longer will treat Hong Kong as autonomous from Beijing.
Activists in Hong Kong have complained the law will undermine civil liberties and might be used to suppress political activity.
The move in Beijing came as three pro-democracy legislators were ejected from Hong Kong’s legislative chamber, disrupting the second day of debate on a bill that would criminalise insulting or abusing the Chinese national anthem.
The legislature’s president, Andrew Leung, suspended the meeting minutes after it began and ejected Eddie Chu for holding up a sarcastic sign about a pro-beijing legislator that read “Best Chairperson, Starry Lee”.
A second pro-democracy member was ejected for shouting after the meeting resumed, and a third who rushed forward with a large plastic bottle in a cloth bag that spilled its brownish contents on the floor in front of the president’s raised dais.
“We have wanted to use any method to stop this national anthem law getting passed by this legislature, which is basically controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, because the law is just another way of putting pressure on Hong Kong people,” Mr Chu said outside the chamber.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo notified Congress on Wednesday that the Trump administration no longer regards Hong Kong as autonomous from mainland China, setting the stage for the possible withdrawal of the preferential trade and financial status accorded to the former British colony.
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong, who rose to prominence as a student leader during 2014 pro-democracy demonstrations, applauded the US announcement.
Sanctions or the freezing of Hong Kong’s special economic status would “let Beijing know it is a must to completely withdraw and stop the implementation of the national security law”, Mr Wong said.
Beijing blocked a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the legislation on Wednesday, with China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun tweeting that Hong Kong is “purely China’s internal affairs”.
China’s foreign ministry said ahead of Mr Pompeo’s announcement that Beijing would take necessary steps to fight back against any “erroneous interference in Hong Kong’s affairs”.
Mr Chu said the Hong Kong legislature’s president had objected to his placard calling Ms Lee an “illegal chairperson” during Wednesday’s first day of debate, so he made a new one that called her the best chairperson.
Ms Lee was recently elected chairwoman of a key committee that sent the anthem bill to the full legislature for consideration.
Her election, which the pro-democracy opposition contends was illegal, ended a months-long filibuster that had prevented the
The law is just another way of putting pressure on Hong Kong people
committee from acting on the bill and other legislation.
Mr Chu was carried out by security guards, even as fellow pro-democracy legislators protested and tried to stop it.
After the meeting restarted, Ray Chan started yelling as Mr Leung explained his decision to remove Mr Chu, and the legislative president suspended the meeting again and ordered Mr Chan ejected.
Other pro-democracy legislators surrounded Mr Chan, who then hid under a table, as security officers tried to remove him. He eventually was carried out.
A longer suspension followed the ejection of Ted Hui, who kicked the plastic bottle toward the president’s dais after security officers tussled with him and it fell from his hands.
Members left the chamber, security guards sprayed disinfectant and cleaning workers arrived to wipe the carpet. A group of firefighters in full protective gear entered and collected evidence. They appeared to take samples from the floor using swabs.
Mr Hui later described the contents as a rotten plant, and said he wanted Mr Leung to feel and smell the rotting of Hong Kong’s civilisation and rule of law, and of the “one country, two systems” framework that democracy activists feel is under attack by China.