The UK has introduced a BNO-eligible Hong Kong people can bring their families to immigrate to the UK. The plan has been fiercely opposed by Beijing, which has said it is a crude interference in China’s internal affairs and has even postured as if it wants to severely counter it. In the past few months, Chinese politicians and media have been throwing out counter-proposals, even putting the issue of BNO UK residency in the context of the broader issue of dual citizenship.
From Time to time, Beijing has let slip that it is considering disqualifying BNO holders and all those with dual citizenship from holding public office or even voting. Some even talk of extending the Nationality Law of the People’s Republic of China to Hong Kong, no longer allowing dual nationality, and of abolishing the Hong Kong resident status of Hong Kong residents who have foreign passports.
But after all that talk, Beijing’s countermeasures now turn out to be simply declaring that it does not recognize the BNO as a valid travel document. This counter-measure against the British opening the Chinese doors wide to welcome Hong Kong people is very characteristic of the spirit of Q over the law. The British government has repeatedly stressed that Hong Kong people who can move to the UK through the new policy do not need to have a physical BNO passport, as long as they can prove that they have BNO status, i.e., they were born in Hong Kong before 1997. Hong Kong people who arrive in the UK with a SAR passport and present a birth certificate from the British rule era will be able to benefit.
What is even stranger is that Beijing no longer recognizes BNO as a valid travel document, what exactly does that mean? The BNO is issued by the UK and is recognized by other countries. In the past years, we have seen many cases of Hong Kong people holding BNOs in natural and man-made disasters abroad, seeking help from the British Consulate and following the rapid return to Hong Kong on a British chartered flight. It is not uncommon for SAR passport holders to seek help from the Chinese Embassy when they are in trouble overseas.
The British policy of BNO is of course motivated by its responsibility to Hong Kong people. But more importantly, this policy will bring huge real benefits to the UK. Britain has seen a wave of talent and capital fleeing after Brexit and the plague got out of hand. Chinese capital used to say they wanted to invest in the UK, but they also wanted to be the UK as a bridgehead to advance to Europe. After Brexit, Chinese capital to the UK must be reduced. Not to mention the fact that many of the investment plans promised to be made by China during Xi Jinping‘s visit to the UK turned out to be empty cheques.
The British government estimates that up to 300,000 Hong Kong people may use the scheme to immigrate to the UK. The average property price of a residential unit in Hong Kong in 2019 is US$1.2 million. With four people in a Family unit, each family sells the house plus other savings after bringing one million two hundred thousand dollars to immigrate, the UK will be able to get nine hundred million dollars of capital inflow. This amount of money, equivalent to half of Britain’s current foreign exchange reserves, can be said to be the Life-saver of the British national economy, and I am afraid that London will not be frightened by Beijing’s war-wolf mouthpiece.
So will Beijing escalate its countermeasures by severely stripping BNO and dual nationals of their civil rights? The majority of Hong Kong’s upper class, civil servants, financial and business elites have foreign nationality, as do some of the very patriotic returnees and Chinese Communist Party princelings and royalist politicians who are in lockstep with Beijing. The family members of the “old patriot” Tam Yiu-chung are all in the immigration consultancy business, and many of their business sources may be in the establishment circle. It is conceivable that if Beijing really wants to DQ all BNO and dual nationality holders, then the entire ruling machine in Hong Kong may immediately collapse in a vacuum. A large number of pro-establishment voters would also lose their right to vote.
A regime that considers national security so important would normally have strictly outlawed dual nationality and dual allegiance from the very beginning. But everyone in China’s ruling class practices the Chinese patriotism of “patriotism is work, immigration is life,” and Hong Kong is a springboard for them to run away. The issue of dual citizenship in Hong Kong is destined to be a dead end for Beijing in Hong Kong. The Chinese Communist Party has always chosen to avoid discussing this issue. Will the all-powerful Emperor Xi now solve this problem with the brute force of no one before him, and accelerate the already unfolding campaign? This is really something to look forward to!
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