Bernard Chan
Photographer: Justin Chin / Bloomberg
Photographer: Justin Chin / Bloomberg
Hong Kong is unlikely to see an exit under a UK visa program for holders of special British passports, a top government adviser said, predicting some would be offset by arrivals from mainland China.
The number of national passport holders of the British National (overseas) departure will be ‘much, much smaller’ than the current estimates of as much as 1 million over the next five years, Executive Council convener Bernard Chan said on Monday. While the former British colony has seen people flee in the past, such as before its return to the Chinese government in 1997, “they come back or new immigrants come in,” Chan said.
There are now a large pool of talented continents to take in those who are leaving, Chan said. He described the leavers as a mix of people who do not trust China, who want a better education for their children or who “think they may not be so competitive” in an economy that can help workers to win businesses in China, increasingly appreciated. .
“If you look at foreign companies, they all hire returning continents,” Chan said. ‘Their customers are all Chinese from the mainland. Can you blame them? ‘
British grants Hong Kongers 5 Passports one minute as exodus
On Sunday, the UK will accept visa applications for as many as 2.9 million GNI-eligible Hong Kong residents and dependents who together make up nearly 70% of the local population. London announced the move after Beijing enacted a comprehensive national security law in June, calling the British government a ‘clear and serious breach’ of the 1984 treaty that paved the way for Hong Kong’s return.
China has justified the security measures banning undermining, terrorism, secession and collusion with foreign forces as an essential tool to end sometimes violent protests that hit the city in 2019, while the UK said the new law ‘the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. “Some politicians from Beijing in Hong Kong have demanded measures to allow residents of the city to hold only one passport.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday said the security law was “on the same level as, if not better than” similar legislation in the US, and called on the Biden government to give it a ‘fair’ review. give. “Given the extreme social unrest and violence that overwhelmed Hong Kong in 2019, the introduction of the national security law by the central authorities was essential and rational,” she said. told a forum on American and American relations.
Courts in Hong Kong are the last check Beijing’s Growth force
While Chan acknowledged that some residents had begun to move, he argued that the new arrivals neutralized the previous waves of outward migration, such as after China’s crackdown on Tiananmen Square activists in 1989. Other times, they returned to the city as soon as corrected matters.
“At the moment we are still in the storm – this is not a good time to assess the situation,” Chan said. “But anyway, it will not be close to the number of people projected.”
(Updates with Carrie Lam’s comments in the seventh paragraph.)