According to Reuters, Hong Kong residents can apply for a visa that paves the way for British citizenship from Sunday. The new program coincides with China and Hong Kong no longer recognizing the British National Overseas (BNO) passport as a valid travel document. The UK and China have been in talks over China’s attempt to silence pro-democracy protesters who were arrested in large numbers in 2019 and 2020.
The British government says the new visa program is part of a moral commitment to Hong Kong residents after Beijing introduced a strict security law that violates the terms of the agreement under which the semi-autonomous city was returned to China in 1997. The visa program is expected to attract more than 300,000 people in Hong Kong and Britain. China has said that those who get the visa will become ‘second-class citizens’.
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