U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a Wednesday op-ed in the South China Morning Post, said the U.K. will expand immigration rights for roughly 2.9 million Hong Kong residents if Beijing proceeds with its controversial national security law in Hong Kong.
Johnson said the security law lies “in direct conflict” with Beijing’s obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the 1984 treaty between China and the U.K. that laid out the terms of Hong Kong’s switch from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
The threat was the most forceful yet from the U.K. in the matter of Hong Kong’s autonomy, guaranteed in the 1984 treaty under the “one country, two systems” policy separating Hong Kong’s economy and administration from mainland China’s. Before Wednesday, the U.K. had been relatively quiet on the matter.
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