200,000 Hong Kongers are set to come to Britain to live after UK offered them a route to citizenship
- Boris Johnson has unveiled plans to welcome three million Hong Kong residents
- The Foreign Office is working on estimates that 200,000 will take the offer
- Alan Mak, a Conservative of Chinese descent, said he doesn’t think many will move to the UK, though if they do it will be a boost for the British economy
Around 200,000 Hong Kongers could come to Britain after the UK offered them a route to citizenship.
This month, Boris Johnson unveiled firm plans for the UK to welcome Hong Kong residents today after China instituted a draconian new clampdown on opposition.
The Prime Minister hit out after the introduction of a landmark new security law giving the communist state sweeping powers to punish dissent in the former British territory.
The Foreign Office is working on estimates that 200,000 Hong Kongers will take up the offer and move to the UK, according to the Financial Times.
The Foreign Office is working on estimates that 200,000 Hong Kongers will take up the offer and move to the UK, according to the Financial Times (Pictured: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in the House of Commons to discuss China’s controversial Security Law on July 1 2020)
One source told the newspaper that the exact number was in a state of ‘flux’ with an average of 180,000 expected. Another said the office was predicting over 200,000.
Alan Mak, a Conservative MP of Chinese descent, said he didn’t think many Hong Kongers would take the offer but said he felt, if they did, it would ‘be a very big boost’ to the economy, adding that ‘Hong Kongers are very industrious and entrepreneurial.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions on July 1 Mr Johnson said: ‘The enactment an imposition of this national security law constitutes a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British joint declaration.
‘It violates Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and is in direct conflicts with Hong Kong’s basic laws. The law also threatens freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration.
‘We made clear that if China continued down this path we would introduce a new route for those with ”British National Overseas” status to enter the UK, granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter to apply for citizenship, and that is precisely what we will do now.’
Police detain a protester after spraying pepper spray during a protest marking the 23rd anniversary of UK pulling out of Hong Kong in 1997
There were protests in Hong Kong after the law came into force, 23 years to the day since Britain returned the former colony to Chinese rule
China’s ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming today accused the UK Government of a ‘gross interference in China’s internal affairs’ over its decision to offer a path to citizenship to up to three million Hong Kongers
Johnson previously called the Hong Kong security law a ‘clear and serious violation’ of the joint declaration between the UK and China over Hong Kong’s future.
And he said that the UK would open its doors to those living there to come to Britain to escape the clampdown by the totalitarian regime.
The move, dubbed a ‘route to citizenship’ by the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, will give around three million Hong Kongers the rights to ‘British National Overseas’ passports.
Days after the announcement, Beijing slammed the British Government, accusing them of ‘gross interference in China’s internal affairs’ and ‘political manipulation’.
Downing Street hit back at the ambassador’s comments and said while the UK and China have a ‘strong and constructive relationship’ in many areas ‘this relationship does not come at any price’.