China accuses Britain of interfering in Hong Kong and Chinese language affairs. (File)
SHANGHAI:
A brand new British coverage permitting Hong Kong residents to assert British citizenship is a violation of worldwide regulation and interferes with China’s inside affairs, China’s embassy in London mentioned on Thursday.
British Inside Minister Priti Patel mentioned on Wednesday that Hong Kong individuals with British Nationwide Abroad or BN(O) standing would be capable to apply for particular visas to dwell in Britain that would finally lead in the direction of citizenship, ranging from January 2021.
Britain had made that call regardless of opposition from Beijing and China would reply strongly if it was not reversed, the Chinese language embassy mentioned in a press release.
The transfer “severely violated (Britain’s) personal commitments, significantly interfered with the interior affairs of China and significantly violated worldwide regulation and the fundamental norms of worldwide relations,” it mentioned.
London’s choice, which may permit almost three million Hong Kong residents to settle in Britain, got here after Beijing imposed new safety laws on the previous British colony that democracy activists mentioned would finish the freedoms promised in 1997 when the territory was returned to Chinese language rule.
The British Consulate Basic of Hong Kong mentioned in a press launch on Thursday that the immigration route provides BN(O) residents the best to dwell, work or research in Britain, and was made “following the Chinese language authorities’s choice to impose a brand new Nationwide Safety Legislation on Hong Kong”.
Britain says the regulation breaches the phrases of the handover treaty agreed in 1984. China accuses Britain of interfering in Hong Kong and Chinese language affairs.
“The Chinese language facet urges the British facet to recognise the truth that Hong Kong has returned to China, to take a look at the Hong Kong nationwide safety regulation objectively and instantly appropriate its errors,” the embassy mentioned.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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