Prime Minister Boris Johnson raised the bar in a growing face-off with China yesterday by promising to permit about three million people from Hong Kong to relocate to and work in Britain if Beijing advances with a new national security law on Hong Kong.
Mr. Johnson’s offer, which was made in The Times of London’s column allows for a significant influx of people from Hong Kong if the situation in the territory worsens. The offer however does not provide any clue as to how these arrivals would get British citizenship.
While describing the offer as one of Britain’s biggest changes in visa regulations, the Prime Minister said the approximated 350,000 Hong Kong residents who have a British overseas passport and some 2.5 million Hong Kong residents that are eligible to apply for one, would be approved 12-month renewable visas that would permit them to work in Britain and place them on a path to citizenship.
The Prime Minister wrote: “Many people in Hong Kong fear that their way of life — which China pledged to uphold — is under threat. If China proceeds to justify their fears, then Britain could not in good conscience shrug our shoulders and walk away; instead we will honor our obligations and provide an alternative.”
The Prime Minister’s offer applies to Hong Kong residents whose passports reflect the insignia of the British government (as that reflects their status in the territory before it went back to Chinese sovereignty in 1997) but do not transfer the rights of citizenship that come with just an ordinary British passport.
China has rejected the idea with anger by stating that Britain has no right to propose that kind of offer residents of Hong Kong who are Chinese nationals. It remains unclear whether the Chinese authorities would grant these passport holders allowance to leave and, if they are not granted, what Britain would do to have them leave Hong Kong.
