Hong Kong protests: calls grow to give citizens right to live and work in UK

Campaigners say it is time to extend the right of abode previously denied to British National (Overseas) passport holders

By Tania Branigan

Anti-government protesters in Hong Kong call on the British government to declare the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1997 invalid. 

Calls for the UK to restore the right of abode to people in Hong Kong are growing as the political crisis in the former British colony escalates.
As fears of direct intervention by Beijing grow, veteran pro-democracy campaigners have argued that Britain has a responsibility to protect residents who hold the passports it issued ahead of the handover.
Several hundred protesters rallied outside the British consulate on Sunday to demand they receive a full British passport, the Financial Times reported.
In the run-up to Hong Kong’s handover in 1997, Britain replaced the British Dependent Territories Citizens passports held by three million people with the British National (Overseas) passport, which grants the right to vote in the UK, but not the right to live or work here. 

A passionate campaign for holders to be granted the right of abode, particularly in light of 1989’s brutal crackdown on Tiananmen Square’s pro-reform protests, was dismissed – earning the BN(O) the nickname “Britain says No”. 

Craig Choy, a lawyer who has helped to lead the campaign for equal rights for BN(O) holders has compared the treatment of people in Hong Kong to the Windrush scandal.
The passports are available only to those who registered before 1997, and holders are not able to pass their status to their children, but the documents can be renewed at any time. 

The number of valid passports at the moment is thought to be in the tens of thousands, but renewals appear to have risen sharply in years when political tensions have run high.
Anson Chan, formerly the second highest official in the city, said the UK should consider the issue again: “You promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy and basic rights and freedoms – when those are taken away from them, surely Britain has a legal and moral responsibility to deal with the consequences.”
Martin Lee, the veteran Hong Kong campaigner nicknamed its “father of democracy”, said it was all the more pressing to revisit the right of abode and related issues in light of the protest movement and the fact that the “one country, two systems” arrangement which underpins the Sino-British joint declaration was no longer working.
“That’s the obligation of the British government, being the only other signatory to the joint declaration,” he said.
Last month Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said that Britain should grant Hong Kong citizens with BN(O) passports full UK nationality. 

He told the FT that “a few” cabinet ministers were supportive of the decision.

People gather to call on the British government to declare the invalidity of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Sunday. 

Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong before the handover, unsuccessfully urged the UK to give the right of abode to all those holding British Dependent Territories passports.
The late Lord Ashdown, who as Liberal Democrat leader campaigned on the issue, said last year that Britain was “urgently in need of some soul-searching enquiry about our neglect of duty towards our former colonial subjects” which should include considering the rights of BN(O) in Hong Kong.
A government spokesperson said: “We continue to believe that the best solution for Hong Kong, and the British National (Overseas) passport holders that live there, is full respect for the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Sino-British Joint Declaration.”
Last year, declassified files revealed that Britain even pressured Portugal repeatedly not to grant rights to citizens of Macau before it handed the region back to China, fearing that it would increase the pressure to grant Hong Kong similar rights.
Lisbon granted passports, with full citizenship rights, to anyone born before late 1981 and allowed Portuguese nationality to be passed to their children.
One protester told the Guardian she was planning to renew her BN(O) passport in case of a crackdown by Beijing, even though she did not want to leave her home. 

She added: “I don’t expect Britain to give me residency, but it might help me to get somewhere else.”

Chris Patten: UK risks selling its honour on Hong Kong

"I wonder what has happened to our sense of honour and our sense of responsibility"

By Danny Vincent

Chris Patten: "What has happened to our sense of honour and our sense of responsibility?"

The former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, says the UK risks not meeting its promises to the territory and "selling its honour" in an attempt to reach trade deals with China.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Lord Patten said the UK had let down "a generation" of democracy activists.
It is 20 years since Hong Kong was returned to China after more than a century of British rule.
The UK government says it takes its commitments to Hong Kong seriously.
Anson Chan, former Hong Kong chief secretary -- who worked as Lord Patten's deputy -- also expressed deep concern about China's behaviour towards Hong Kong.
Citing the example of the alleged kidnapping by China of five booksellers and other rights abuses, she told BBC Newsnight that the "one country, two systems" form of rule itself is under threat.
"Unfortunately the rest of the world -- particularly Great Britain -- would rather pretend not to see what is going on," she said.
"If they continue to ignore this steady erosion, by the time they wake up to the fact that 'one country, two systems' exists only in name, it will be too late."
In the 1980s the Chinese and British leadership agreed that Hong Kong would be guaranteed certain freedoms not enjoyed in the rest of China -- freedom of press, freedom of assembly and a partially-elected law-making council.
This principle, known as "one China, two systems", was a part of the Sino-British joint declaration -- an international agreement guaranteeing Hong Kong those freedoms after the handover.
Lord Patten said the UK government has not "manifestly stood up for Hong Kong".
"I wonder what has happened to our sense of honour and our sense of responsibility -- particularly in Britain. It's above all a British question," he said.
"We signed the joint declaration with China. It's a treaty at the UN. It's supposed to commit us to standing up for Hong Kong's rights until 2047."
"And you don't get much sense of the British government actually standing over those promises and obligations and I think that's a great pity."
Lord Patten said the UK risks putting its desire to do trade with China, over its commitment to Hong Kong.
"It's all for derisory, ludicrous reasons," he said. 

"The argument that the only way you can do trade with China is by kowtowing to China on political issues is drivel -- it's complete nonsense."
"I worry about how people are prepared to sell our honour for alleged trade deals which never actually happen. I think that that would be calamitous. And what do we represent to the world if that's what happens?"
In 2015, five publishers selling critical articles about the Chinese leadership disappeared, only to reappear in detention in the mainland.
One bookseller had been abducted while in Hong Kong. 

Four of the publishers -- including a British passport-holder -- were eventually returned to Hong Kong. 

One Swedish national remains in Chinese detention.
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong in 2014 in what came to be known as the "Umbrella Protests". 

The protests lasted several weeks, and captured the world's attention, but failed to achieve any concessions from Beijing.
" I feel very strongly that we let down the parents of this generation of democracy activists. I think it would be a tragedy if we let down these kids as well," Lord Patten said.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "The UK takes our longstanding commitment under the Sino-British Joint Declaration very seriously."
"We believe that 'one country, two systems' continues to be the best arrangement for Hong Kong's long term stability and prosperity, as it has been for nearly 20 years.
"We hope and expect that 'One Country Two Systems' will be respected and successful long into the future."
The spokesperson added: "We regularly discuss the importance of respect for 'one Country, two Systems' and Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy with the Chinese Government. The Foreign Secretary made this clear to his Chinese counterpart when they met in London in December."

Malcolm Turnbull's government urged to publicly stand up to China over Hong Kong

Activists warn of erosion of press freedom, attacks against academics and the disappearance of booksellers.

By Katharine Murphy 

Hong Kong democracy activists Anson Chan and Martin Lee. Lee said he would like the Australian government ‘to voice its concerns publicly as well as in private’.

The prominent Hong Kong democracy activists Martin Lee and Anson Chan have urged the Turnbull government to stand up to China publicly over the deteriorating state of civic freedoms, warning there has been a progressive diminution of the “one country, two systems” policy.
Lee, the founding chairman of Hong Kong’s democratic party, and Chan, a former chief secretary in both the British colonial government of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong special administrative region government under the Chinese sovereignty, made the appeal at the National Press Club on Thursday after a meeting with Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop.
Lee said he would like governments, including the Australian government, “to voice its concerns publicly as well as in private”.

Chan said the success of the “one country, two systems” policy was demonstrably in Australia’s interests, given Australia’s deep linkages with Hong Kong, and given it was in the interests of all foreign powers that China abide by its international obligations. 

She urged Australia to “take a consistent stand on reaffirming your values”.
The public intervention by the two veteran campaigners followed a display by the new generation of democracy campaigners in Hong Kong at a swearing-in ceremony at the legislature on Wednesday.
New parliamentarians from the pro-democracy movement used the swearing-in ceremony as a vehicle to launch fresh protests, with some refusing to read the required oath, which is a precursor to them being sworn in to the legislature.
Lee told the National Press Club he had urged the current crop to take the oath to ensure they took their places in the Hong Kong parliament but he said young participants in the pro-democracy movement were intent on creating a point of tactical difference with the previous generation.
He said if the Chinese government delivered on their undertakings on “one country, two systems” then young people would not escalate their activity to the extent of calling for independence from the mainland.
Lee said he believed the calls for independence were not really serious and most people in Hong Kong did not want to sever ties with the mainland, they wanted democracy.
Chan warned civic conditions were deteriorating in Hong Kong, with a serious erosion of press freedom, attacks against academics and the disappearance of booksellers critical of Chinese leaders.
She said the case of the booksellers had sent a message that “we are no longer safe, even on Hong Kong soil”.
She also pointed to the presence of “paid agitators” in Hong Kong who were pushing a pro-Beijing line and she expressed concern that Beijing’s propaganda machine was infiltrating Hong Kong culture.