
UK opens door to citizenship for 300k HK residents - tosh
https://www.ft.com/content/0cf70de8-fd10-4a5c-8303-fbd2b0b3811e
======
xster
It's a pretty eye grabbing title but does anyone have primary sources to what
was specifically legislated or discussed?

Seems like there's tons of editorial fillers around generalities and posturing
but the only thing specific is that BNO passport holders can now take what's
essentially a tourist visa to the UK for 12 months now instead of 6 months.
i.e. you can come spend money but you can't earn money and it doesn't sound
like a "door to citizenship".

So while it sounds magnanimous, it seems like a means to skim people already
with assets rather than extending a political lifeline to petrol bomb
throwers.

~~~
ksec
It is basically a way of allowing them to work indefinitely until they are
good enough for Citizenship. Whatever Good enough might means, I would guess
that would be some sort of professional requirement.

As long as they dont have Citizenship, they wont have any benefits such as
medical, retirement and other benefits etc.

If I am going to guess they want people to fill them gap of some low cost
labour that wont be available post Brexit.

~~~
xster
Thats what the title obliquely insinuates but it's specifically not what it
is. It's a travel visa with no work permit.

------
econcon
Why just HK, why not for all former colonies which UK is responsible for,
there have been colonies where millions of people died because of British
policies as a result a lot of their progenies have been completely trapped in
poverty, when will they offer them citizenship?

~~~
thefounder
I think they selected 300k of the richest from HK. As you may have guessed
it's about money! Don't expect any warm welcome for the poor ones...we just
had Brexit and we must make a success of it...

~~~
BasedCode
Isn't it just the 300k holders of British overseas passports?

~~~
thefounder
You are right! It's actually more useless than I thought

[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-
china-52844353](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52844353)

------
harry8
So just a little history.

Everyone in Hong Kong had a British passport as good as any British passport.
3am Parliament session revoked then all just before they announced the
handover back to China. But what about the non-Chinese in hk? This is why
ancestry visas existed. Not perfect, you got done non-white with that but not
too many and you got pretty much all of white Hong Kong.

Now they'll take Hong Kong's 300k richest. How generous.

~~~
ksec
>Everyone in Hong Kong had a British passport as good as any British passport.

Where did you get that idea?

~~~
harry8
I don't claim to be an expert historian in the area. These are memories from a
vague interest in current events in those times. Wikipedia seems to support
but I know that's not an end to the matter. If you have deeper information and
links do please share.

The 1983 act is just before they announced the 1997 handover.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Overseas_Territories_c...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Overseas_Territories_citizen)

"At the time of nationality reclassification in 1983, the largest group of
BDTCs (2.5 million people) was associated with Hong Kong. The deprivation of
full passports and nationality rights for colonial residents was criticized
for effectively codifying ethnicity as the deciding factor in determining what
rights British subjects were entitled to, an impression confirmed by
exceptions granted to the majority white residents of Gibraltar and – after
the Falklands War – the Falkland Islands. The British government was
particularly unwilling to grant full citizenship and immigration rights to
Hongkongers, fearing a mass migration to the UK after the transfer of
sovereignty to China in 1997."

------
vulcan01
If you don't have an FT subscription:
[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hong-kong-
res...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hong-kong-residents-uk-
china-visa-security-law-a9537996.html)

~~~
justinclift
Also: [https://archive.vn/zVpFJ](https://archive.vn/zVpFJ)

------
1cvmask
It seems the equivalent of saying come for a longer tourist holiday, and
perhaps one day you could also become a citizen, with no pathway of course.

