The United Kingdom is making waves again with its so-called BNO visa scheme, which provides a route for Hong Kong holders of British National (Overseas) passports born before the handover in 1997 to emigrate to the UK. Since the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong in June 2020, Five Eyes countries have relentlessly discredited it after failing to derail its implementation, and the UK has done its part, not least by launching the BNO scheme in January 2021.
As a sovereign state, China has comprehensive jurisdiction over Hong Kong, one of the country’s two special administrative regions established in accordance to its Constitution. And the promulgation of a National Security Law for Hong Kong by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China’s top legislature, is the embodiment of the Chinese central authorities’ jurisdiction over the Hong Kong SAR.
The BNO scheme, which was designed and made in direct response to the promulgation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, is a deliberate provocation, in addition to a violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations by blatantly interfering in China’s internal affairs. Politicians in London must be reminded that provocations are not without consequences in international interactions
The UK’s newly unveiled plan to expand, by October, the special visa scheme to include BNO holders' children who are now aged 18 or above, London’s latest manipulation of the scheme, is especially malicious in nature. The expansion plan deliberately targets a certain group of young people who were the “main forces” of the anti-China insurrection, known as the “black revolution”, two years ago. The expanded visa scheme is a reward to the rioters.
Politicians in London have invariably wielded the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 whenever they have seen the need for moral grounds in badmouthing China’s governance of Hong Kong. They pretend not to know that the underlying and only purpose of the Joint Declaration was to facilitate the return of Hong Kong to China, which was already achieved on July 1, 1997. Britain has had no responsibility or moral duty to Hong Kong, no jurisdiction over Hong Kong, and no right to assume oversight of its governance since July 1, 1997.
It is self-deceiving of British politicians to claim there are moral grounds for them to interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs, which are China’s internal affairs.
The author is a member of the All-China Youth Federation.