With the events taking place in Hong Kong where the Chinese government is getting ready to station its mainland security and intelligence agents in hong Kong and have also enacted certain security laws that will snatch the political rights of the hong kongers. This was sone by the Chinese government due to the recent democratic protests taking place in hong Kong and also because of the fear of external intervention by countries like the united states.
British prime minister Boris Johnson recently said that the UK would offer millions of hong Kong residents with British citizenship if china imposes those security laws. He believes that it is necessary and those laws strip the hong Kong residents with basic rights which the Chinese government promised to uphold when the city was handed over to the Chinese government by the British in 1997. Boris Johnson has said that the united kingdom will be providing hong Kong residents with British national overseas passports which is a possible route for citizenship and will also allow them to settle in the united kingdom. Its been reported that there are about 350,000 holders of the British national overseas passport in hong Kong and about 2.5 million citizens in hong Kong are eligible for the passport. The British national passport is a travel document that does not have citizenship rights. Britain had given it to various hong Kong residents before the city was handed over to China. The prime minister has taken this responsibility for helping the hong Kong residents along with several other countries like Australia, Canada, and the united states who are also facing international pressure to make residential accommodations for the hong Kong residents looking for migration possibilities from their city to other countries because of the repression. Many activists have even asked the United Kingdom and various other countries to impose economic sanctions on china so that china does not impose the laws.
China has a history of trying to control and take over countries like it did with Tibet and now is trying it with hongKong. When Britain handed over the city to China, a joint declaration was formed along with the united nations which china is now directly violating with the actions it takes in hongKong. In a time like this where the whole world is fighting against a deadly disease, china should work alongside the international community and let hongKong thrive.
