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City Beat | What does Beijing’s current silence over Britain’s citizenship offer to Hongkongers mean for the fate of BN(O)?

  • China signals wait-and-see approach for its inevitable retaliation against Britain opening a route to citizenship for millions of Hongkongers
  • But however Beijing strikes back, pragmatism should prevail to allow Sino-British relations to survive the row, even if the BN(O) arrangement doesn’t

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Britain last July offered a so-called pathway for Hong Kong’s BN(O) passport holders to full British citizenship. Photo: Fung Chang
It started as a diplomatic compromise, but the arrangement seems to be coming to an end because the consensus has been broken. That is the likely fate of the British National (Overseas) status in Hong Kong.
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Accusing Beijing of violating the city’s freedoms by imposing a sweeping national security law, Britain last July offered a so-called pathway for local BN(O) passport holders to full British citizenship over a total period of up to six years.
Beijing angrily warned Britain to “correct the mistake immediately”, declaring London had unilaterally breached a long-standing mutual agreement that the BN(O) passport should remain as a travel document only after this former British colony returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
Britain last July offered a so-called pathway for Hong Kong’s BN(O) passport holders to full British citizenship. Photo: Fung Chang
Britain last July offered a so-called pathway for Hong Kong’s BN(O) passport holders to full British citizenship. Photo: Fung Chang

Ahead of Britain’s expected roll-out of application details by the end of January, China’s top legislative body held a special, three-day meeting last week amid speculation that retaliatory measures were being mulled. Intriguingly, this gathering of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress ended without any mention of Hong Kong issues.

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Neither Beijing nor London is free from political risks.

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