The British National Overseas Passport becomes a one-way ticket out of oppression for Hong Kongers starting January 31, 2021. Photo shows a Hong Kong protester holding a British National Overseas Passport during a protest against the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law.
The Hong Kong man, who goes by the pseudonym Harris, has a British National Overseas passport (BNO). He told VOA that he was among the first to go online to apply for a BNO visa from the British government on Sunday, Jan. 31, and was “on the BNO channel.
Website for applying for a British National Overseas Visa (screenshot)
He told VOA, “The online application took a couple of hours, and the next day (Monday) I had a biometric registration appointment. My passport will be sent to the UK for processing and then sent back to Hong Kong. The whole process takes about 12 weeks, however, how long it actually takes is not yet known as there is no precedent so far, after all we are the first batch.”
On the last day of January, the British government opened the British National (Overseas) Visa (BNO) channel to Hong Kong residents. Hong Kong people with BNO passports were given the opportunity to settle in the UK for Life. On this day, Hong Kong people with this status began to flee the city.
Before that, Beijing had broken the promise of “one country, two systems” and imposed a repressive rule in Hong Kong, arresting pro-democracy activists and suppressing freedom of expression, leaving many Hong Kong people in exile.
Another Hong Kong resident, Mr. Yao, has been living north of London, England, with his Family for two years. “Mr. Yao” is also his pseudonym. After being introduced by a friend of a friend, he agreed to be interviewed by the Voice of America, but he could not use his real name and his voice could not be made public, “for fear that they (the Chinese Communist Party) would track him down electronically and settle accounts later.”
Contacted Mr. Yao’s friends have also previously approached several Hong Kong people or British people, but they all said they did not dare to speak.
Pedestrians walk past the Hong Kong version of the national security law on the streets of Hong Kong publicity signs. (July 15, 2020 file photo)
Mr. Yao did not have a direct line to the Voice of America reporter, and was uncomfortable even with social media like the Telegraph, which is considered safe. Eventually a friend in Hong Kong acted as a middleman and dialed the U.S. and U.K. numbers separately. As a result, the records do not show that Mr. Yao had a direct call with Voice of America.
Mr. Yao told Voice of America that he is in the trading industry; having settled in the U.K. through the immigration route, he “is now seeing significantly more people coming to the U.K. from Hong Kong.”
He said, “In terms of survival, those who come here basically have some savings and some financial ability to support themselves for a while, not that they need to work right away. And it’s hard to find a job in Britain now.”
However, Mr. Yao said that those British and Hong Kong people, no matter what industry they are engaged in in Hong Kong, let’s say including professionals such as teachers who are well paid, will not mind working in restaurants when they arrive in the UK, “they are willing to do so. I know a professional who came over from Hong Kong and found a manual job working in a warehouse, and he also worked diligently. We Hong Kong people have a spirit of hard work and hardship, we call it ‘horse death landing line’, and now, the first-Time arrivals of British people use this spirit to survive.”
The phrase “horse dies and walks on the ground” is a Cantonese proverb that refers to a man who once rode a horse to go out, but unfortunately the horse died and he had to dismount and walk on his own; in a broader sense, it refers to the absence of advantages, support and tools to rely on, so he can only rely on himself and move forward step by step.
Harris, who has entered the BNO channel, told the Voice of America that he is a teacher in Hong Kong, “teaching in Hong Kong is a good income, above the average line of Hong Kong people’s income.”
He said he is making various preparations before “leaving” and “intends to leave Hong Kong in June or July. After I go to the UK, my current career is definitely not going to work, so I have to do that. I will first study a degree in another field, and then look for a job.”
If all goes well, Harris, who is in his early thirties, will take his two children and family with him to the UK.
He says that he had lived a life of ease in Hong Kong, “leaving because the environment here is no longer favorable for Hong Kong people, political reasons have led to many arrests and sentences, and many things don’t even meet the guidelines of the law anymore. Even the courts are no longer independent, but have to work with the government. China says one country, two systems, and we used to believe that, but that has changed everything.”
Yuen Bow-yee, a Hong Kong entrepreneur and activist currently in the U.S., says his “comments are out of place and he can no longer go back to Hong Kong.” He told Voice of America, “Some people in Hong Kong can choose not to pay attention to politics, that is, work to support their families, or not to live. But the loss of freedom, including freedom of speech, may be OK for the older generation, it’s unbearable for the younger generation, so there will be a mass exodus.”
Harris sees that many Hong Kong people in their 60s and 70s are choosing to stay. They experienced the golden age of Hong Kong, and many purchased property so they could live off the rent; however, it will be difficult to replicate this for the new generation of Hong Kongers, and there will be no more opportunities.
Sky, a Hong Kong resident who has worked in the United States for three years, told Voice of America, “Some of the older Hong Kong people who don’t have much knowledge or too much intelligence gradually come to believe what the Chinese Communist Party’s so-called mainstream media says. Others become civil servants like police officers, get generous pay, get bought off somehow and identify with the CCP.”
Skye left Hong Kong in the 2000s to study in Australia, then returned to Hong Kong and finally left there for the United States.
Seeing the deteriorating political environment in Hong Kong, he said, “The Chinese Communist Party began to infiltrate after the handover of sovereignty in Hong Kong, but in the early days it was still the Hong Kong people who were in charge. Later, however, (the CCP) began to blatantly infiltrate, propagate and brainwash.”
Skye added that economic reasons also gradually put another layer of shackles on Hong Kong people, “I grew up in Hong Kong, but, my only way out now is to stay in the United States. I see the loss of opportunities for Hong Kong people. I worked in Hong Kong before 2000, when I graduated from high school and worked as an assistant manager, not in a high position, but earning at least 20,000 Hong Kong dollars a month. At that time, if you worked hard, you would be rewarded. Now, how can a college graduate in Hong Kong live when he can only earn HK$10,000 per month?”
Mr. Yao, who is in the U.K., told Voice of America that instead of thinking of themselves as immigrants, “Hong Kong people now feel like ‘refugees,’ fleeing Hong Kong like the wave of mainlanders fleeing Hong Kong in the 1940s and 1950s.”
However, he said, in Britain there are different organizations, including churches and civil rights groups, “that are helping Hong Kong people settle down. I also help some of my friends from Hong Kong who have just arrived to settle, like looking at houses, moving clubs, finding schools and things like that.”
Harris, who intends to leave Hong Kong, says the theme for Hong Kongers revolves around leaving: “There’s a lot of talk about how to leave at tea time. The UK is the most promising option because other countries, the Canadian or Australian governments, despite promises that they would give us a way to become their citizens, it’s not clear exactly what that way is. Australia says that if we go to school for two years and live for a few years there is a pathway to become Australian citizens, but it is not clear what the pathway is, and we don’t know. And the plan that the UK gave us was the 5+1 program, so we could escape Hong Kong and stay in the UK. So it’s the most promising path.”
Harris added that it feels like a return to the wave of departures after June 4, 1989, “when most Hong Kong people feared that the transfer of sovereignty in ’97 would mean that their lives would be in danger. So before that, many people fled Hong Kong. And the atmosphere now is much more stern than it was then. The U.S. declared not long ago that the Chinese Communist Party was committing genocide in Xinjiang, and that feeling is descending on Hong Kong as well.”
He believes that before ’97, people were worried about things that hadn’t happened yet, just that the devil would appear; now they are seeing with their own eyes what “the Chinese Communist Party will pull off since the 2019 amendment campaign, how feared and evil it can be. So, people are not imagining, but seeing everything with their own eyes. What I am saying is that no matter how calm the CCP says Hong Kong is now and how the national security law has had a positive effect, the opposite is true and we have all been found guilty.”
On January 31, the Beijing and HKSAR governments ceased to recognize the British National (Overseas) Passport as a valid travel document and proof of identity, and did not accept its use for entry and exit on land, in Hong Kong and in Macau.
As to whether this will affect the departure of Hong Kong people using the BNO channel, Harris said: “Officially, we can use the Hong Kong ID card to leave the country, but it is difficult to say in the future. When you buy a ticket, the airline requires a passport number, so it’s still unknown whether people without SAR passports will end up leaving the country.”
Harris told Voice of America, “My friends asked me why I agreed to be interviewed, and I said I wanted to put the voice of Hong Kong people out there and let it spread to the world, because we are the last Hong Kong people and there will be no more on earth from now on, and I want you to keep that voice. And, I want to announce that I am just a Hong Kong person, not a Chinese person.”
In the U.S., Skye said, “Hong Kong people should separate the Chinese Communist Party from China and enlist the support of the Chinese people to deal with the Chinese Communist Party. And Hong Kong people should always be Hong Kong people and not be divided internally.”
According to statistics from the British Home Office, there are about 612,000 British National (Overseas) passports still valid as of Oct. 2, 2020; currently, there are about 3.5 million holders of British National (Overseas) citizenship.
Under the UK government’s latest scheme, up to 5.4 million Hong Kong residents will be eligible to live and work in the UK for five years and then apply for citizenship.
When the BN(O) passport was first offered in 1997, before Hong Kong was handed over to China, it was a disappointment to Hong Kong people as it only offered the right to visit Hong Kong for six months for those with BN(O) status, and did not give the right to work or become full British citizens.
The Communist Party’s implementation of the Hong Kong Area State Security Act in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020, changed the British government’s initial intention and pushed the UK to open the door to protection for Hong Kong people on January 31, 2021.
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