THOUSANDS FEAR CHINA CRACKDOWN, FLEE HK FOR UK

Thousands of Hong Kongers have already made the painful decision to leave behind their hometown and move to Britain since Beijing imposed a strict national security law on the Chinese territory last summer, Zen Soo and Sylvia Hui reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Their numbers are expected to swell to the hundreds of thousands as 5.4 million Hong Kong residents are eligible to apply for British National Overseas (BNO) visas. Some are leaving because they fear punishment for supporting the pro-democracy protests that swept the former British colony in 2019.

Others say China’s encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and they want to seek a better future for their children abroad. Most say they don’t plan to ever go back.

The moves are expected to accelerate now that 5.4 million Hong Kongers are eligible to apply for visas to Britain, allowing them to live, work and study there and eventually apply to become British citizens.

Applications for the British National Overseas visa officially opened Sunday, though many have already arrived on British soil to get a head start.

Britain’s government said some 7,000 people with British National Overseas passports — a travel document that Hong Kongers could apply for before the city was handed over to Chinese control in 1997 — have arrived since July on the previously allowed six-month visa.

It estimates that over 300,000 people will take up the offer of extended residency rights in the next five years.

Beijing said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a travel document or form of identification, and criticized Britain’s citizenship offer as a move that “seriously infringed” on China’s sovereignty. It was unclear what effect the announcement would have because many Hong Kongers carry multiple passports.

Beijing drastically hardened its stance on Hong Kong after the 2019 protests turned violent and plunged the city into a months-long crisis. Since the security law’s enactment, dozens of pro-democracy activists have been arrested, and the movement’s young leaders have either been jailed or fled abroad.

Because the new law broadly defined acts of subversion, secession, foreign collusion and terrorism, many in Hong Kong fear that expressing any form of political opposition — even posting messages on social media — could land them in trouble.

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