This is the kind of thing that Hong Kongers fleeing the Chinese dictatorship now have to listen to, from someone whom The Guardian identifies as “a UK government spokesperson”: “We continue to face unprecedented levels of immigration since the pandemic, which is why the prime minister and home secretary have announced a plan to slash migration levels, curb abuse of the system and deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration.”
In 1997, when Britain delivered Hong Kongers to the dictatorship, the Chinese government got started on reneging on its promise to maintain, for at least half a century, a two-system country: dreary dictatorship for the mainland but continued freedom and democracy for Hong Kong.
China did not eliminate Hong Kong’s political freedoms in one fell swoop. It did immediately initiate a long-term, step-by-step strategy to do so, and its intentions soon became obvious. Then, after the massive protests by Hong Kongers of 2019, China decided that enough was enough and imposed the annihilating National Security Law.
In 2020, Chris Patten, who had served as the last British governor of Hong Kong, one who had tried to strengthen its democracy, said that the security law was a betrayal of the Hong Kong people and represented “a complete destruction of the joint declaration.”
In 1997, a delusional Patten (shown above) had burbled during the handover ceremony that the occasion was “cause for celebration, not sorrow…. Hong Kong’s values are decent values. They are universal values. They are values of the future in Asia as elsewhere—a future in which the happiest and the richest communities, and the most confident and most stable, too, will be those that best combine political liberty and economic freedom as we do here today…. Now Hong Kong people are to run Hong Kong. That is the promise and that is the unshakable destiny.”
Celebration, not sorrow? Unshakeable destiny?
The Chinese dictator in attendance, Jiang Zemin, was probably rolling his eyes. But he too, declaring that the handover was “a victory for the universal cause of peace and justice” and that “the Hong Kong compatriots have become true masters of this Chinese land,” surely believed in an unshakeable destiny. Just not the one imagined by Patten.
Patten was wrong in 1997.
He was right in 2017 when he said: “I think Xi Jinping’s game plan is that southern China…shouldn’t start to look like Hong Kong but that Hong Kong should be just the same as southern China…. That the joint declaration has been breached [by China] I have no doubt, I have no doubt at all.”
Patten was also right in 2020 when he said that the British government “should be more lenient” with refugees from Hong Kong. “When people are politically threatened we should be much more prepared to let them settle here.”
The least Britain can do is provide refuge for the people escaping from the place that Britain abandoned in 1997. For a while, the British government more or less provided that refuge. Between January 2021 and September 2023, it approved about 191,000 applications for asylum by Hong Kongers under a visa program intended to “reflect the UK’s historic and moral commitment.”
But now, reports The Guardian (“Home Office accused over ‘absurd’ rejections of Hong Kong asylum claims,” December 26, 2023):
A senior figure in the disbanded democratic opposition in Hong Kong has accused the Home Office of hardening its stance towards those fleeing the former British colony after a series of “absurd” rejections of asylum claims.
The rejection notices have demanded a contact address for a dissident leader who is in hiding from the Hong Kong authorities, included incorrect personal details, and cited a New York Times article as evidence that they could not have secured a passport if they were in any real danger. One applicant acquitted in Hong Kong of ‘rioting’ was told this showed that there was no danger to her although the authorities soon after sought to bring her back to court.
Isaac Cheng, the former vice-president of Demosisto, whose members have been accused of collusion with foreign powers and rounded up, said immigration caseworkers appeared “predisposed to discredit” claims from even those who had been put on trial in Hong Kong over their role in protests….
“Many of these individuals waited over two to three years for a second interview, only to face ultimate asylum rejection,” Cheng said. “Now, they might have to endure at least one more year for their cases to be heard in the appeal tribunal.
“The Home Office rejects Hong Kong cases at its convenience. It appears that the officers lack awareness of the dire situation faced by Hongkongers. It is clear that they are being predisposed to discredit these cases, and using the most absurd reasons for refusal.”
UK Government Spokesperson can explain it to them. Immigration levels are being slashed, “abuse of the system” curbed.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “British Government Welcomed and Tried to Gag Refugees From Hong Kong”
“Hong Kong refugees have been treated less than delicately by British bureaucrats before. In May 2023, The Telegraph reported that His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs had been giving the UK addresses and bank balances of Hong Kongers and other Chinese nationals to the Chinese government, which often hunts and harasses, even kidnaps, Chinese nationals living abroad and appreciates any actionable information it can get about them.”
