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HomeWorldBoris Johnson offers 3 million Hong Kong residents haven in UK

Boris Johnson offers 3 million Hong Kong residents haven in UK

UK Prime Minister's offer drew the ire of China, which said Johnson’s comments amounted to foreign interference in its internal affairs.

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London: Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he will give as many as three million Hong Kong residents the chance to seek refuge and a new life in the U.K. if China presses ahead with plans to impose a new security law on the former British colony.

The premier’s intervention marks an escalation in London’s pressure on Beijing over its proposals for a law that democracy advocates say will erode the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. China warned that it would “backfire.”

“Many people in Hong Kong fear their way of life, which China pledged to uphold, is under threat,” Johnson wrote in an article published in The Times of London newspaper. “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 Chinese government said Johnson’s comments amounted to foreign interference in its internal affairs and said China has fulfilled all its obligations under the agreement that saw Hong Kong returned to the communist state in 1997.

“We advise the U.K. side to step back from the brink, abandon its cold war and colonial mindset, recognize the reality that Hong Kong has returned to China,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily media briefing in Beijing Wednesday. “It should abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs. Otherwise this will backfire.”

The offer of a path to citizenship, first made by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week, had already provoked a stern response from China. While Johnson’s proposal is unlikely to influence Beijing to change its position, a point British officials accept, it will be broadly popular among his Conservative Party colleagues who are increasingly hostile toward China.

Johnson’s government says a re-set of relations with Beijing will be necessary in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and officials are re-examining whether to go ahead with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co. as a provider of equipment for Britain’s next generation mobile networks.

The prime minister’s intervention is also likely to be welcomed in the U.S., where President Donald Trump has stepped up his rhetoric against Beijing and pressed Johnson to keep Huawei out of British 5G systems on security grounds.

The international dynamic shifted with China’s proposed security law, which British officials are waiting to study in detail before taking final decisions on policy.

On Tuesday, Raab told MPs he had held talks with the U.K.’s so-called ‘Five Eyes’ security allies on the potential need to share the burden of migrants if there is a “mass exodus” from Hong Kong in the months ahead. He said he believes that prospect is unlikely.

Even so, the U.K.’s willingness to embrace mass migration from its former colony may test the public appetite for welcoming foreign nationals, especially after the country voted to leave the European Union in part to gain control of its borders. – Bloomberg


Also read: Boris Johnson will revamp his agenda to deal with UK’s worst recession in 300 years


 

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