Offers of citizenship to 3m sends message to China says Rifkind
THE UK Government has sent a message to China with its plans to offer millions of Hong Kong people the chance of citizenship, former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind has said.
China’s ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress, endorsed a controversial security law for Hong Kong which critics say will strip the territory of its autonomy.
The law, which will alter the former British colony’s mini-constitution, or Basic Law, will require Hong Kong’s government to enforce measures to be decided later by Chinese leaders.
In response, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the UK is ready to open the door to almost three million Hong Kong citizens if China presses ahead with the law by effectively upgrading the status of British National (Overseas) passports to grant immigration rights beyond the current six-month limit.
Sir Malcolm, who was foreign secretary in the lead-up to the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, said he thought the decision was made for two reasons, including telling China that the economically important Hong Kong would become an “empty husk”. Speaking at an event hosted by the Henry Jackson Society think-tank, he
said: “First of all, to help the morale of people in Hong Kong, that they’re not being forgotten, and that anything that can be done about practical guidance in terms of their long-term future is something the British Government and British public are very keen to contemplate. But secondly, also it’s a message to China. They must be aware that if they push Hong Kong too far... then they will lose the goose that lays the golden egg.”
Meanwhile, a Chinese diplomat Chen Wen, minister and first staff member of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, said there will be “consequences” if the UK offers citizenship to people in Hong Kong.