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China said on Friday it will no longer recognize the British national passport abroad as a valid travel document or form of identification amid a bitter dispute with London over a plan to allow millions of Hong Kong residents a route to the residence and eventual citizenship.
Friday’s announcement by Foreign Office spokesman Zhao Lijian casts new uncertainty around the plan just hours after the UK said it would start accepting applications for what are called BNO visas from Sunday night. .
Under the plan, up to 5.4 million Hong Kong residents could be eligible to live and work in the UK for five years and then apply for citizenship. The lawsuit soared after Beijing imposed a sweeping new national security law on the former British colony last year after months of pro-democracy protests.
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The announcement came just hours after the UK said it would start accepting applications for what are called BNO visas from Sunday night.
“The attempt by the British side to turn large numbers of Hong Kong people into second-class British citizens has completely changed the nature of the two parties’ original understanding of BNO,” Zhao told reporters at a session. daily informative.
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“This measure seriously infringes on China’s sovereignty, seriously interferes in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs, and seriously violates international law and the basic norms of international relations,” he said. “China will no longer recognize the so-called BNO passport as a travel document and proof of identity as of January 31, and reserves the right to take further action.”
Many Hong Kongers carry multiple passports and it is unclear what the Chinese government could do to prevent people from entering the UK through the BNO visa scheme. As an added protection of personal privacy, a cell phone app will allow applicants to download their biometric information without having to be seen visiting the UK visa office.
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China will stop recognizing the BNO passport.
The BNO passport was originally a disappointment to Hong Kongers when it was first offered prior to Hong Kong’s transfer to the Chinese government in 1997. At the time, it only offered the right to visit for six months without the right to work or become a citizen. full. . Applicants must have been born before the delivery date.
However, pressure grew to expand those privileges as China increasingly cracked down on civil and political life in Hong Kong in what critics say violates China’s commitment to maintaining the separate way of life of Hong Kong. the city for 50 years after the cession.
China first declared the 1984 Sino-British Declaration which made handover agreements null and void despite their recognition by the United Nations, then imposed national security law on the territory after the city legislature he could not approve it alone.
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The move comes amid a bitter dispute with London over a plan to allow millions of Hong Kong residents a route to residency and citizenship.
“I am immensely proud to have brought this new route for Hong Kong BNOs to live, work and settle in our country,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.
“In doing so, we have honored our deep ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong, and we have upheld freedom and autonomy, values that both the UK and Hong Kong hold dear.”
