Fearful Hong Kongers Rush To Secure Limited British Passports

Hong Kong, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Jun, 2020 ) :Shortly before Hong Kong was handed back to China, Simon Ng applied for a British National (Overseas) passport, a document he never thought he'd need. Now he is considering whether to use it to emigrate.

China's plan to impose a sweeping national security law on the city in response to huge pro-democracy protests has Ng mulling the prospect of leaving, the first time he has contemplated such action since Britain returned the former colony in 1997.

"Back then, like many of my peers, I thought China would reform and there was hope," the 52-year-old assistant professor told AFP.

"But now, this is really a dark moment, and the future is quite likely to be even worse." BN(O) status was the product of an earlier round of similar fears.

The run up to the 1997 handover was a febrile time.

While Ng was optimistic, many other Hong Kongers worried about what rule by authoritarian communist China might mean for the city's freedoms and thriving capitalist system.

As a result Britain offered anyone born before handover the option of applying for a BN(O) passport.

The document was of limited value. It gave Hong Kongers access to British consular services overseas and permission to travel to the UK for up to six months at a time, but not to live or work there.

But it was recognition that Britain had some sort of responsibility to the people who were once its subjects.

Now the usefulness of the document could all change after China last month unveiled plans to enact a law banning acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign interference.