Last week we covered the British offer of fast-track to citizenship for almost 40% of the residents of Hong Kong, which you can read about here. Call us skeptical, but in our mind we felt that the offer might to have been completely on the up and up and perhaps had more to do with blistering the failing UK economy rather than human rights.
After recent comments by Dominic Raab, we’ve decided to revisit the whole issue and give 5 reasons why the offer to Hong Kong nationals probably won’t work. Of course we could offer much more than 5 reasons, but for now we will stick to the main elephants in the room.
China Doesn’t Allow Dual Citizenship
The Peoples Republic of China do not allow dual citizenship. The reason for the whole British National (Overseas) Passport was to leave people that did not wish to take up a Hong Kong passport with the ability to still travel. There are now only around 300,000 of these passports in circulation, in comparison to the Hong Kong passport which is owned by 6 million plus and is one of the strongest in the world.
In short people will be asked to choose between a British passport and one that not only lets them travel all over the world, but also have access to live and work in
mainland China.
The UK is Still Pretty Racist
This will throw the cat amongst the pigeons, but the UK vote to leave the EU for a vast majority was about race. The UK do not want more foreigners coming into the country. They feel so strongly about this they voted to be poorer, so long as there were less foreigners. After Boris Johnson announced the plan Migration Watch called it “a potential disaster to UK immigration control”.
Many people of Hong Kong might like to wave British flags whilst having a superiority complex over mainland compatriots, but even with UK citizenship, over there, you will be seen as Chinese immigrants.
It is Not Going to Attract the Best Migrants
The UK have been forthright in how they want to “protect democracy”, “right the wrongs of the past” and all the other mumbo jumbo, but the fact is this is a conceited offer to attract skilled and moneyed migrants. The sad fact of the matter is though that those people still with British National (overseas) status tend to be elderly and that anyone with any skills would not choose the UK over Hong Kong. Dominic the Comic Raab has even come out and admitted that he expects very few people to take up the offer.
So, unless the UK expects millions of Hong Kongers to take over the Isle of Sheppey and turn it into then Hong Kong of the Thames then the idea is a non-starter.
China Might Just Say No
In fact China have pretty much already done this. China have declared that they see those with the status as “Chinese compatriots who are Chinese Nationals” and that if the UK pushed through with this it would take “corresponding measures”, although without going into what measures they were. In this respect, the UK government drastically misunderstand just how big a deal China will undoubtedly make of this.
This will not just affect the UK’s ability to do business with China, but also with much of the world that is allied to China. This will undoubtedly result in a race to the bottom trade deal with the USA, something nobody in the UK should be wishing for.
The Majority of the World Sees Through this Smokescreen
There are reasons why most of the world, including the EU have stayed silent over what has been happening in Hong Kong. Firstly whether you like it, or not trading with China is not only extremely important, but will undoubtedly become more so as China cements itself as an economic superpower, the other reason is hypocrisy.
No one with a straight face could say China is perfect, or does not have problems in Hong Kong and beyond, but people are starting to see the racism and hypocrisy on how we deal with the nations of the world. Protesters getting shop in America are called rioters, whilst rioters In Hong Kong are not only called peaceful protestors, but are even funded by the US government. All whilst we turn a blind eye at despots in the middle-east and the brutal war in Yemen.
People are slowly but surely calling bullshit…
