UK prepares for influx of Hongkongers fleeing fresh China crackdown

Protestors against China’s national security law in 2019

Hong Kong protest against China’s national security law in 2019

(Image credit: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

Tens of thousands of Hongkongers are expected to flee in search of new lives in the UK and Australia after China yesterday approved a drastic overhaul of election rules in the city state.

‘This is the end of Hong Kong’: behind China’s security crackdown What will life in Hong Kong be like under China’s new security law? Reaction: how China’s new security law ‘crushes Hong Kong dissent’

Beijing’s parliament unanimously approved new legislation that will give China the power to “veto” Hong Kong election candidates “deemed unpatriotic” - making it “almost impossible for democracy activists to run for office”, The Times reports.

A senior Chinese official told the paper that alongside new security laws that came into effect last year, the electoral reform represents a “combination of punches” intended to flatten dissention in the region.

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The newly passed legislation has been condemned Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab as “the latest step by Beijing to hollow out the space for democratic debate in Hong Kong, contrary to the promises made by China itself”.

“This can only further undermine confidence and trust in China,” he added in a statement released after Beijing’s National People’s Congress passed the rule changes by a vote of 2,895 to zero, with one abstention.

Joe Biden’s administration has also “intensified its criticism of Beijing’s clampdown”, the Financial Times reports. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would continue to impose sanctions on China in response to the bid to “quash” democracy.

The crackdown is expected to intensify the exodus from Hong Kong that began when the security laws came into effect last July. Around 130,000 people quit the city in the following six months, according to immigration data cited by Chinese and Hong Kong media.

About 5,000 Hongkongers applied to live and work in the UK after visa programme changes were made in late January to ease the way for people in the Asian financial hub to be granted entry. And the government expects that total to rise to 300,000 eventually.

The expected influx is likely to be imminent, amid “fears that Beijing will soon bar dissidents from leaving”, says The Times.

The Australian government has also told the approximately 100,000 Hongkongers with Australian passports “to consider moving because Beijing may no longer recognise them as dual citizens under the national security law”, the paper adds.

Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs.

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a masterâ€™s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.