Final yr, China imposed a sweeping nationwide safety regulation on Hong Kong that critics say has stripped the town of its autonomy and valuable civil and social freedoms, whereas cementing Beijing’s authoritarian rule over the territory. Since then, many outstanding activists and politicians have fled, whereas others have begun quietly arranging to maneuver abroad.
The regulation criminalizes secession, subversion and collusion with international forces, and carries with it a most sentence of life imprisonment.
In keeping with knowledge from the UK House Workplace, acquired by CNN by way of a freedom of knowledge request, since July 2019, when anti-government protests broke out throughout the town, over 400,000 BN(O) passports have been issued to Hong Kong residents, greater than the overall quantity issued for the earlier 15 years.
On the time the nationwide safety regulation was proposed, the variety of passports issued jumped from 7,515 in June 2020, to over 24,000 in July. These numbers might also be decrease than the quantity of individuals making use of, because the coronavirus pandemic seems to have impacted the processing of passports final summer time.
China has reacted angrily to the proposed plan, claiming it breaches the settlement beneath which Hong Kong was handed over from British to Chinese language rule, which London in flip argues the nationwide safety regulation undermines.
In a daily press convention Friday, Chinese language Ministry of Overseas Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian accused the UK of “disregarding the truth that Hong Kong has returned to the motherland for twenty-four years” and violating guarantees made on the time of handover.
He stated the BN(O) path to citizenship “critically violates China’s sovereignty, grossly interferes in Hong Kong affairs and China’s inside affairs, and critically violates worldwide regulation and primary norms of worldwide relations.”
From January 31, Zhao stated, China will now not acknowledge BN(O) passports as journey paperwork or identification proof, “and reserves the best to take additional measures.”
It isn’t clear what sensible results such a transfer would have, nevertheless, as most Hong Kong residents, whether or not international or Chinese language nationals, use locally-issued identification playing cards for the needs of getting into or exiting the territory, and likewise for many identification functions. A lot of those that are eligible for a BN(O) passport may even be entitled to use for, and should already maintain, a Hong Kong passport, which will also be used for these functions.
BN(O) passports have by no means been absolutely accepted for journey to mainland China, the place ethnic Chinese language Hong Kong residents use a “house return” allow together with their Hong Kong identification card or passport.
Given the restricted scope of this quick response, many have instructed additional steps may very well be coming, particularly if numerous folks exit Hong Kong in coming months.
“Thereafter, Hong Kong Chinese language who purchase a international nationality of their very own free will, will probably be deemed to have misplaced Chinese language nationality, in strict accordance with Article 9 of the Chinese language Nationality Regulation,” Ip stated. “Once they make a acutely aware resolution to depart and, by implication, surrender on Hong Kong, it is just proper that they need to be requested to make their selection — China or a international nation — international citizenship or the best of abode and the best to vote in Hong Kong.”
Nor may BN(O) holders be the one folks leaving. Across the time of the 1997 handover, many Hong Kongers acquired international citizenship, particularly in Commonwealth nations akin to Canada and Australia, each of which had beneficiant immigration insurance policies on the time.
In December 2020, former lawmaker Ted Hui dramatically fled Hong Kong, making the most of a faux environmental convention to leap his bail, and has now sought asylum within the UK. Nathan Regulation, a outstanding former lawmaker and chief of the 2014 Umbrella Motion, has additionally claimed asylum there, whereas others have sought safety in Germany, the US, and Australia.
Escaping abroad doesn’t at all times equal full freedom: Regulation and different exiles have complained of being tailed and even harassed by folks they imagine are brokers of the Chinese language authorities, a cost Beijing’s representatives have denied. They’re additionally restricted in what communications they’ll have with household and mates again in Hong Kong, for concern of getting them in hassle with the authorities.
Whereas most BN(O) holders residing within the UK are unlikely to be monitored in such a approach, the extreme political surroundings across the new scheme could make it troublesome to return for individuals who determine they don’t wish to keep in Britain.
Ray Wong, an activist who fled to Germany in 2017, changing into among the many first Hong Kongers to achieve asylum in Europe, informed CNN final yr that he missed “mainly the whole lot in Hong Kong.”
“I miss being surrounded by Hong Kong folks, being surrounded by Cantonese-speaking folks,” he stated. “I even miss the very disagreeable local weather.”
