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The Guardian view on Hong Kong: a historical obligation | Editorial
Britain failed the city’s residents before. Now it must stand by themDespite a police ban, and in the shadow of the pending national security law which Beijing is imposing, Hong Kong residents gathered on Thursday night to mourn the bloody 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square’s pro-democracy protesters. The massacre fuelled a passionate campaign to grant Hong Kong’s residents British citizenship, doomed by opposition to increased immigration. Most were instead granted the right to the British National Overseas passport, or BN(O), which carries no right of abode and was soon nicknamed “Britain says No”. It left the region with little expectation of support from its former coloniser as Beijing tightened its hold, breaching promises that the city could maintain its freedoms until 2047.In Hong Kong about 350,000 residents hold BN(O) passports, which allow them to remain in the UK, while another 2.5 million are eligible for them. Now the prime minister has promised that if – in reality, when – the Chinese government imposes a draconian national security law, Britain will allow any holder to come to the UK for a renewable period of 12 months and to work here, potentially placing them on a route to citizenship. “We will honour our obligations,” he wrote in an article for the Times. Continue reading...
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