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OTTAWA: The Canadian government said on Thursday (November 12) that it would make it easier for Hong Kong youth to study and work in Canada in response to new security rules imposed by China on the former British colony, a move likely to increase relations already tense. with Beijing.
“Today’s announcement is set against the backdrop of a series of events that have been very worrying for Canada,” Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told Reuters in an interview, citing this week’s move by China to disqualify the elected legislators in Hong Kong.
Any Hong Kong resident who has graduated from university in the past three years can apply to work for up to three years in Canada, and will be offered a way to more easily transition to permanent residence, the minister said.
Canada will also speed up processes for “your spouses, your partners and your children to come and build the next chapter of your life,” Mendicino said.
Hong Kong’s autonomy was guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” agreement enshrined in the 1984 British-Sino Joint Declaration. Britain said on Thursday that China had violated this treaty when it disqualified elected lawmakers this week.
Violations of China’s security law, or any law Canada doesn’t have on its books, will be ignored when evaluating applications for asylum, permanent residence or other permits from Hong Kong and elsewhere, Mendicino said.
China’s envoy to Canada, Cong Peiwu, warned Canada last month against granting asylum to pro-democracy protesters because he said they were “violent criminals” who threatened the “health and safety” of the 300,000 Canadian passport holders living in Canada. Hong Kong.
On Thursday, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa did not immediately comment. Hong Kong’s applications for study permits are on the rise this year, the minister also said.
“Things are going to get worse, not better” in Hong Kong, said Vancouver-based immigration attorney Richard Kurland, adding that Hong Kong parents should consider sending their children to study in Canada.
After China initially announced that it would implement new national security legislation for Hong Kong in July, liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspended an extradition treaty with the city and banned the export of sensitive military items.
Canada’s relations with China, the world’s second-largest economy, deteriorated after Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese national, was arrested in Vancouver in late 2018 on a bank fraud warrant issued by the American authorities.
Shortly after, Beijing arrested two Canadian men it said were suspected of espionage, and Meng is now fighting extradition to the United States. China has also suspended most canola imports. (
