100,000 apply to live in United Kingdom

LONDON — It’s been nine months since Adrian Leung and his family packed up their lives in Hong Kong in search of a brighter future in Britain.

The 51-year-old teacher was on course to move to Canada with his wife and son, fleeing political turmoil back home. But when Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government announced a new visa program granting Hong Kong citizens the right to residency — and eventual citizenship — in the U.K., he said his choice was clear.

“Compared to Canada’s scheme, the criteria of Britain’s scheme is much lower: We just need to live in the country for five years. To me, it’s much easier,” Leung told CNBC.

Many in Hong Kong are angry at what they see as China’s encroaching grip on the semi-autonomous region in the wake of a new national security law passed in June 2020.

The law, which aims to prohibit secession and subversion of state power, has been widely condemned by Western governments and human rights watchdogs as undermining the “one country, two systems” principle under which the former British colony was transferred to China in 1997.

That prompted Britain to offer refuge to those born in Hong Kong prior to its handover. While it’s unclear how many have left due to the security law, Britain’s offer for refuge came for that specific purpose and was timed accordingly. The U.K. has said it will help those born in Hong Kong prior to its handover, citing “China’s failure to live up to its international obligations with respect to Hong Kong.”

A spokesperson for Hong Kong’s information services department said it “deplores and opposes” the launch of the U.K. visa, while the Chinese embassy in London said that the scheme “interferes in Hong Kong affairs, which are China’s internal affairs.”

China has separately dismissed claims that the law undermines local freedoms, saying it was a necessary measure to curtail the chaotic mass protests that dogged Hong Kong in 2019.

Leung, some of whose students were prosecuted and, in certain cases, imprisoned for demonstrating, is one of tens of thousands of Hong Kongers to have emigrated to Britain in the past year.

“It seemed to me, after June 2019, that Hong Kong is not going to be under the rule of law,” said Leung, referring to the start of the protests. “For the future of my son, I thought we had to leave,” he told CNBC.