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Three million Hong Kong residents 'eligible' for UK citizenship Three million Hong Kong residents 'eligible' for UK citizenship
(32 minutes later)
British foreign secretary will facilitate path if China moves against autonomous territory Home Office decision infuriates Chinese government and could risk backlash among traditional Tory voters
Up to 3 million people registered as a British nationals overseas (BNO) in Hong Kong could be eligible for UK citizenship if China presses ahead with plans to gain more control over the former colony, the British foreign secretary announced. The Home Office appears to have dramatically widened the pool of Hong Kong citizens that will be eligible to apply for UK citizenship, implying millions may be able to apply if China presses ahead with plans for draconian new security legislation in the territory.
Dominic Raab has said he would facilitate a path to British citizenship for (BNO) passport holders in the territory – some 349,881 people – if Beijing does not suspend its plans. The UK government’s decision has infuriated the Chinese government, and could risk a backlash among traditional Conservative voters opposed to immigration.
On Thursday Raab announced that he would “set in train” arrangements enabling passport holders to come to the UK for longer than the current six-month period and apply for extendable periods of 12 months to work and study – providing a “pathway to citizenship”. On Thursday the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the UK would extend visa rights for about 350,000 British national (overseas) (BNOs) passport holders if Beijing went ahead with its plans to impose a national security law on Hong Kong.
The Home Office has now confirmed that all those who would have been issued with (BNO) passports previously can renew the documents, meaning they would be eligible for extended visa rights. He said visa rights would be extended from a period of six months to an extendable 12 months and so provide an unspecified pathway to future citizenship.
The government estimates there are around 2.9 million (BNO) people currently in Hong Kong. However, on Friday, the Home Office in a blog clarified that the rights would cover anyone eligible to apply for a BNO passport currently living in Hong Kong, of which there are an estimated 2.9 million people. Most of the additional 2.55 million people have held a BNO passport in the past but not renewed it. The BNO was issued to Hong Kong residents born before the handover of the territory from UK to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
China has reportedly said Raab’s suggestion would violate international law. The Home Office blog said all those applying for extendable visas would be subject to normal immigration laws, a phrase on which it did not expand. The blog added further details will be made available.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said all (BNO) passport holders are “Chinese nationals and if the UK insists on changing this practice it will not only violate its own stance but also international law”, according to the BBC. Beijing adopted a resolution on Thursday that opens the way for a new national security law in the former colony. The resolution has been condemned by several western governments, and a joint British-American effort to raise the issue at the UN security council in New York was pushed back by an alliance led by Russia and China.
Downing Street said the government hopes China will “listen carefully” to its warnings over China’s moves to implement sweeping anti-sedition legislation in the territory. Priti Patel, the UK home secretary, said she was deeply concerned at China’s proposals for legislation. The new law bans treason, subversion and sedition in Hong Kong and follows months of anti-government demonstrations last year.
The prime minister’s spokesman said: “We have urged China to reconsider the implementation of this law and live up to its responsibilities as a leading member of the international community. Patel said: “If China imposes this law, we will explore options to allow British nationals overseas to apply for leave to stay in the UK, including a path to citizenship.” She said the UK would continue to defend the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. The Home Office said on its website that the 12-month period could be extendable for eligible parties.
“We hope they will listen carefully to the arguments we have made in public and in private about the impact which Beijing’s proposal would have on Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity.” The Chinese foreign ministry said London had agreed the passport holders should not enjoy residency rights and that the offer violated international law, while warning of retaliation. “China reserves the right to take necessary measures,” ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, adding Beijing considered Chinese residents in Hong Kong to be Chinese citizens, regardless of which passport they held. China would fear mass migration from the prosperous international city, and believes a much wider offer could destabilise Hong Kong’s economy.
China’s ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress, endorsed the security law for Hong Kong earlier this week, a move that has strained relations with the UK, the US and other countries. It is not clear if Conservative MPs will be prepared to see hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong citizens come to the UK so soon after the party fought a long battle to control immigration by leaving the European Union.
The 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. On Friday, Bob Seeley, one of the lead campaigning Tory MPs on the issue, wrote: “The possibility of a mass flight from Hong Kong may become one of those rare occasions where mass asylum in the UK is morally right, as it was with ethnic Indians in Uganda expelled by that country’s insane dictator, Idi Amin, and accepted by the UK and others in 1972.”
The move by China prompted Washington to announce that it will no longer treat Hong Kong as autonomous from Beijing.
Activists in Hong Kong have complained that the law will undermine civil liberties and might be used to suppress political activity.
Beijing blocked a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the legislation on Wednesday, with China’s UN ambassador, , tweeting that Hong Kong is “purely China’s internal affairs”.
Hong Kong ceased being a UK territory in 1997 under an agreement with Beijing dubbed “one country, two systems” in which it was allowed some autonomy.