Hong Kong: What is the population of territory and who is eligible for UK residency?

This week, Boris Johnson offered Hong Kong residents who hold British National Overseas (BNO) passports the chance to settle in the UK and eventually seek citizenship following the passing of a new security law in the country.

Beijing on Tuesday imposed the controversial national security law in Hong Kong, which increases China’s powers and police presence in the city state and represents the biggest shift in Hong Kong’s autonomous status since 1997.

The UK government has confirmed arrangements to allow BNOs to come to the UK will go ahead on Wednesday and said details of the “new bespoke route” will be announced “in due course”.

What does the new route entail and how will it be implemented?

How big is the population of Hong Kong and how many will be eligible to come to the UK?

As of 2018, there were more than 7.5 million people in Hong Kong. Around 350,000 are UK passport holders and 2.6 million more are eligible, amounting to around three million Hong Kong residents who will be able to come under the new residence rights extended by the UK government.

Most of the additional 2.5 million are people who held a BNO passport in the past but did not renew it.

BNO passports were issued to Hong Kong residents born before the handover of the territory from the UK to China in 1997. Previously, BNO citizens were only entitled to visa-free access to the UK for six months.

What are the extended rights for BNOs?

The new rules will allow BNO citizens from Hong Kong to live and work in the UK for five years. After that, they will be able to apply for settled status and after a further year, seek citizenship.

The exact date and details of when the new route will be implemented is expected “in the coming months”, but the Home Office said in the meantime, BNO citizens “who wish to come to the UK will be able to do so, subject to standard immigration checks”.

What has the UK government said?

The prime minister accused China of breaching its obligations to Britain’s former colony and denounced the legislation, saying it threatened the “freedoms and rights” of the people of Hong Kong.

Mr Johnson said China’s actions were also a breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration agreed in advance of the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said there would be no limit on numbers or quotas, and promised the application process would be simple.

He said in a statement: “We will not look the other way on Hong Kong, and we will not duck our historic responsibilities to its people.

“We will honour our commitment to change the arrangements for those holding BNO status and continue to stand up for the people of Hong Kong.

He has however acknowledged there “would be little we could do… to cohesively force” China to allow BNO citizens to come to the UK.

Mr Raab told ITV’s Peston programme: “I wouldn’t want to be naive about this: I think we need to be realistic. But I do think that China as a rising, leading member of the international community is sensitive to the repetitional risk in all of this but clearly not sufficiently that it hasn’t proceeded anyway.

“There is diplomatic leverage, there are other ways that we can persuade China not to fully implement either the national security law or some of the reprisals you talk about.

“But ultimately we need to be honest that we wouldn’t be able to force China to allow BNOs to come to the UK.”

How has China reacted?

China has warned Britain would bear all consequences for any move it took to offer HK citizens a path to settlement in the UK.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a daily briefing that China reserved the right to act against Britain over the issue without specifying what countermeasures Beijing might take.

The Chinese Embassy in the UK said the offer to BNOs would be in breach of “international law and basic norms governing international relations”.

It said in a statement: “We firmly oppose this and reserve the right to take corresponding measures. We urge the British side to view objectively and fairly the national security legislation for Hong Kong, respect China’s position and concerns, refrain from interfering in Hong Kong affairs in any way.”

Additional reporting by agencies