By Kane Wu
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s Justice Minister Teresa Cheng reiterated on Saturday that Britain had no rights over the city under the joint blueprint on how the city would be governed after its reunification with China in 1997.
Cheng commented in a blog post on the eve of changes to the UK visa application program that would allow Hong Kong residents holding a British National Overseas passport to live, study and work in Britain for five years and finally apply do for citizenship.
BNO status was created by Britain in 1987, specifically for Hong Kong residents.
Cheng quoted former Hong Kong Foreign Ministry commissioner Xie Feng as saying “the United Kingdom has no sovereignty, jurisdiction or right to ‘supervise’ Hong Kong at all after the latter returned to China” among the joint statement .
The introduction of Beijing in Hong Kong in June last year with the introduction of a national security legislation, forced Britain to take refuge in the nearly 3 million Hong Kong residents eligible for the GNP passport on 31 January.
China and the Hong Kong government have already hit back with the visa change, saying they will no longer recognize the BNO passport as a valid travel document from Sunday 31 January.
(Reported by Kane Wu; edited by Jane Wardell)