Just the cute ones, please.
Posted on 06/05/2020 8:59:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is offering Hong Kong residents a pathway to citizenship in the United Kingdom should China proceed with implementing a national security law that would effectively control the city-state's government.
China's proposed national security law prohibits sedition, secession, and subversion against Beijing in Hong Kong, and was approved last week by the Chinese parliament, which moved to impose it on the island city-state without the approval of the Hong Kong legislature, through a rarely-used legal backdoor. The law also empowers Chinese national security entities "to fulfill relevant duties to safeguard national security in accordance with the law."
In response, Johnson extended the offer of a possible path to U.K. citizenship to the 3 million residents of Hong Kong, which had previously been under British rule.
"If China imposes its national security law, the British government will change our immigration rules and allow any holder of these passports from Hong Kong to come to the U.K. for a renewable period of 12 months and be given further immigration rights, including the right to work, which could place them on a route to citizenship," Johnson wrote in a commentary published by the U.K. Times.
"This would amount to one of the biggest changes in our visa system in history. If it proves necessary, the British government will take this step and take it willingly."
The U.K. prime minister stressed that he hoped to have a good relationship with China, adding that the powerful communist nation must abide by its international agreements.
"Britain wants nothing more than for Hong Kong to succeed under 'one country, two systems.' I hope that China wants the same. Let us work together to make it so," Johnson said, urging that it was in their best interest to do so," Johnson added.
At a U.N. Security Council meeting last week, the U.S. and U.K. raised concerns about the situation in Hong Kong.
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft asked: “Are we going to take the honorable stand to defend the human rights and the dignified way of life that millions of Hong Kong citizens have enjoyed and deserve ... or are we going to allow the Chinese Communist Party to violate international law and force its will on the people of Hong Kong?"
Since 1997, Hong Kong has been operating under what is known as the "one country, two systems" constitutional principle — that it would be recognized as part of China yet under a British-based legal system and the socioeconomic advantages that came with it — but recent moves by China have led many to believe that principle no longer holds. The agreement was set to expire in 50 years, in 2047.
The Federalist reported that the day before the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry declared that as a historical document the Sino-British Joint Declaration — a 1984 treaty signed between the United Kingdom and China on Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty that stipulated the sovereign and administrative arrangement of Hong Kong after 1 July 1997 — "no longer has any realistic meaning."
In so doing, the Chinese Communist Party abandoned any notion that it would honor the promises to Britain and Hong Kong when the city was handed over, the Federalist added.
For most of last year, millions of Hong Kong residents garnered international attention as they protested in the streets against an extradition law that would have forced the government and its chief executive, Carrie Lam, to permit Chinese authorities to identify, surveil, and even arrest Chinese "dissidents" living in Hong Kong.
The anti-government demonstrations were initially triggered by a now-withdrawn extradition bill. The proposed bill was precipitated by the murder of a pregnant teenager by her boyfriend during a vacation in Taiwan. Because the Hong Kong government does not have an extradition treaty with Taiwan, legislation was proposed that would have allowed the extradition of suspects from the city to other countries, including mainland China.
Protests later included calls for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability in Hong Kong.
UK would do well to do it.
Let HK have a brain drain - UK’s gain.
They should be more discreet about it. China’s next move may be to prohibit people from fleeing.
is it possible of they stay there they can cause a revolution Any support from other cities?
Yeah, that... wow: I’m impressed at the move by the UK. I’m also fearful for the HK people. The response won’t be good.
Or infiltrate spies and saboteurs into the “refugees”.
Deng Xiaoping to Jimmy Carter (when he complained to Deng about “open borders and free immigration” in 1979):
“We’ve got 1.3 billion. How many do you want?”
This move could pull the muslim imbalance in U.K., back to non-muslim.
The Berlin wall is history — the H.K. wall will be drones and hi tech.
RE: China’s next move may be to prohibit people from fleeing.
That would be hilarious. The Chicom propaganda machine (aided and abeted by their fellow Communist sympathizers outside of China ) keeps boasting about two things:
10 The neighboring high tech city of Shenzen will be their version of HK ( good luck with that. Shenzen is UNDER Chinese Communist control unlike the formerly autonomous Hong Kong. Let’s see how that city’s economy thrives with the best and brightest of their neighbors fleeing ).
2) They are to develop and alternative city to HK in the island of Hainan, which is BIGGER in land area than HK. I say, let them, we’d like to see how many foreign business would trust the Communist Controlled Hainan to establish their HQ there.
What the Chicoms don’t realize is that it isn’t the glossy buildings and infrastructure that make an economy, but the PEOPLE and INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL that a city has. Without these people, those buildings/subways/parks are nothing.
RE: “We’ve got 1.3 billion. How many do you want?”
It was less than 1.3 billion people then.
RE: “We’ve got 1.3 billion. How many do you want?”
Answer: Your best and brightest. We’ll take a million as the first installment and we’ll go from there.
I’m pretty sure the people who voted for Brexit didn’t do so with the expectation that half of Hong Kong would be imported to Britain to demographically replace them.
Can we trade Somalis and Islamos for Hong Kongers?
Just the cute ones, please.
Should have done that in the beginning when they abandoned those people to the whims of Communist China.
Far better than the Muslim and African “refugees” they were letting in.
Wikipedia says that almost 1 million residents of Hong Kong already emigrated between 1984 and 1997, but not just to the UK. They also go to other Asian nations, the US, Canada, Australia, etc.
I was last in Hong Kong in 1965 and there was talk even then of what was going to happen. By my memory England made deal with CC that did not allow subjects to leave, but as usual it appears fact is stranger than truth.
I voted for Brexit and I welcome them. Hard working, skilled workers and loyal to Britain, and they won’t be generating terrorists or grooming gangs. I don’t fear a few million of these living here.
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