The lousy way Wu Chi-wai was treated by UK officials after he had touched down in Heathrow was amended. Good. The problem is that the relevant agencies may not yet have reached the stages of Lesson Learned and Policy Permanently Changed (Hong Kong Free Press, August 14, 2026).
London has confirmed that it will not deport former Hong Kong lawmaker Wu Chi-wai [shown above, center] after the democrat experienced entry hiccups when travelling to the UK on his British National Overseas (BNO) passport.
UK Minister for Migration and Citizenship Jo White said in a letter to former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten on Thursday that the Home Office recognised the importance of assessing each case involving a BNO passport independently.
UK authorities should not automatically refuse settlement applications because of overseas convictions, White added.
Wu, former chair of the now-defunct Democratic Party, was convicted under the Beijing-imposed national security law for conspiracy to subvert the state. He was among 47 democrats accused of holding an unofficial pro-democracy legislative primary election in July 2020. The 63-year-old was jailed for four years and five months….
Hong Kong Watch said on X on Thursday that it welcomed the decision of the UK government to allow Wu to enter the country. But it remained concerned “about the treatment of other Hong Kong political prisoners as they apply for the BNO scheme. We urge Jo White to urgently review the broader handling of political prisoners cases, to ensure legitimate applications are not turned down.”
White’s words to the former British governor of Hong Kong sound reassuring. But do they merely fulfill the requirements of public relations? Or do they signal major and permanent change in how Hongkongers who checked that everything was in order before flying will be treated once they land in the UK?
Why the stress on “the importance of considering the individual circumstances of each case,” as White puts it in her letter, when in the normal case Hongkonger’s possession of a BNO passport should be enough to permit entry and to stay long enough to apply for longer-term residency?
Crimes
Hong Kong Watch is right to worry about what may happen to future Hongkongers trying to reach the UK, including those who have been incarcerated for such “crimes” as valuing democracy or criticizing the Chinese Communist Party. No prospective immigrant with this kind of “criminal” record should have to rely on the availability of mass publicity and international support to compel attention to his situation lest he be summarily deported.
The UK government should at least institute a mechanism for letting customs officials know that the prison record of an arriving dissident is no problem when it is in fact no problem and requiring them to disregard that record. Pointlessly scaring the crap out of Hongkongers as they reach your country is no way to make amends for throwing the people of Hong Kong to the wolves in 1984 and 1997.
Also see:
Hong Kong Watch: August 12, 2026 letter from Jo White to Chris Patten
Gov.uk: British National (Overseas) visa
Wikisource: “Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong” (1984)
“The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People’s Republic of China have reviewed with satisfaction the friendly relations existing between the two Governments and peoples in recent years and agreed that a proper negotiated settlement of the question of Hong Kong, which is left over from the past, is conducive to the maintenance of the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and to the further strengthening and development of the relations between the two countries on a new basis.”
