Roughly 5,000 Hong Kong residents want to become British citizens | Abroad

The United Kingdom made it possible for Hong Kong residents to become British citizens in January. This decision was made in response to the National Security Act that the Chinese regime in Beijing introduced to Hong Kong. The law was enacted after the ongoing mass protests in Hong Kong and gives authorities more options to engage with activists.

The United Kingdom, the former colony of Hong Kong, transferred the Crown Colony to China in 1999. It was agreed that China would respect the principle of “one country, two systems” and that Beijing would thus leave the free market economy, the democratic system and the independent judiciary in Hong Kong untouched. With the new security law, Beijing has ignored that agreement, according to critics.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised last year to give British overseas passport holders in Hong Kong a path to obtain British citizenship, allowing them to settle in the UK.

Therefore, China recently decided not to recognize these foreign passports as a legal travel document or as a document to identify itself with them. Also, Chinese consulates no longer assist Hong Kong citizens if they also have a different nationality.

Since the enactment of the National Security Act in Hong Kong, more and more Hong Kong residents want to leave the port city. The number of people moving from Hong Kong to Taiwan nearly doubled last year. About 11,000 people took part, the highest number in at least thirty years.