A Passport And A City: The Hong Kong Families Holding onto the BNO Scheme
On July 1, 2020, the UK announced the expansion of rights for BNO passport holders, arguing that the Hong Kong National Security Law is a “clear and serious” violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. For Hongkongers born before 1997, the BNO now offers a new "escape" route. What can the BNO inform us about the formation of Hongkonger identities and the geohistorical entanglements between Hong Kong, the UK, and China?
By Hsiuwen Liu (劉修彣)
Translated by Wan Li
Edited by Sabrina Chung
The piece first appeared in Initium Media and was translated and published with the permission of the publisher.
“Now, in my thirties, I am facing the same feelings I had during my primary school years. This time I even have my own family and it’s time for me to leave.”
Upon receiving the news, Chen Ka Yee and her friends were at the tension-filled street of Causeway Bay.
It was the 23rd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong, twenty hours after the National Security Law was promulgated. The sky had darkened completely but the daylong protests had yet to come to an end. A few blocks away, anti-riot police were raising pepper sprays as they raced up the escalators of Times Square and arrested many citizens. The phone screen of Chen Ka Yee lightened up as a series of messages appeared in succession.
“Hey, we are expecting news from the UK.” “Seems like it’s referring to the BNO.”
At various corners of the city, many Hongkongers had been waiting for this moment. At 7:50 pm, July 1, 2020 (Hong Kong time), British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (藍韜文) announced the expansion of rights for BNO passport holders because the National Security Law has “clearly and seriously violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration (中英聯合聲明).” Suddenly, the overseas British passports for those born before 1997 implicate a different set of rights and treatment.
Those who had been closely following the live broadcast of the British Parliament had transcribed and disseminated the content of Dominic Raab’s speech much faster than any major media outlet in Hong Kong. Chen Ka Yee learned from her friends important information from the speech: the UK has provided BNO holders a five-year residence permit; permanent status can be applied after five years and British citizenship can be applied after fulfilling a further one-year permanent status. This scheme is applicable for all BNO holders as well as their spouses and children, without quota limitations.
Amidst the news and comments that flooded social media platforms that night, the BNO passport was described as “the escape route and lifeboat initiated by the UK for Hong Kong.” In a Facebook post of Stand News, the comment that had received the most “Like” counts remarked, “Although I don’t want to leave, I’m grateful to the UK for providing us an alternative route.” Chen Ka Yee had been thinking about this alternative route. Arriving home, she read the news carefully and did a web search of living expenses in the UK, housing prices, and the educational system. That night, she decided to deviate from their original plan of immigrating to Taiwan with her husband; bringing their young son and daughter, they would push open this escape door that had suddenly opened before their eyes.
THE ‘REASSURANCE PILL’ IN THE DRAWER
When Chen Ka Yee was on the streets of Causeway Bay, Billy Wong was handling the continuous stream of UK immigration inquiries in front of his computer. The 46-year old Billy Wong is the consultant for the immigration company “Goodbye HK, Hello UK” and he noted that he had been receiving close to a hundred inquiries regarding the BNO scheme on the night of July 1. On July 22, after the UK announced the details of the BNO plan, the number of inquiries had risen to several hundred, with many telling Billy of their plans to leave Hong Kong immediately after completing the administrative procedures.
“It’s all based on the unknown. Not knowing what will happen amidst the geopolitical struggles between powerful nations, not knowing whether personal safety will be guaranteed. Hong Kong hasn’t experienced anything like this ever--being put at the core of a controversy.” He observed that since the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill protests (anti-ELAB protests thereafter) broke out, the insecurities of Hongkongers are on the rise; in May 2020, when news of the National Security Law was released, fear had increased sharply. “Those who emigrated aren’t necessarily those who will be arrested, but rather those who don’t want to live under the White Terror and totalitarian rule.”
In the summer of 2020, a wave of emigration had surged in Hong Kong. When Chen Ka Yee attended gatherings with her friends, the conversation never strayed from the topic of emigration. Since the news announcement of the National Security Law, three to four families around her were planning to leave. At first, not many Hongkongers wished to emigrate to the UK. At the end of May, when the British government hinted at the possibility of expanding BNO rights, everyone just researched about investing in emigration schemes to Taiwan and Canada while renewing their BNO passports, which had been put aside for years.
Billy Wong, consultant for the immigration company “Goodbye HK, Hello UK”. (Photography: Lam Chun Tung/ Initium Media)
The daily service of many district councilors had become a neighborhood service for BNO renewal and consultation. Outside a printing shop located next to Mong Kok’s travel agency, people were lining up to take ID photos and print documents required for BNO renewal.
To apply for a BNO renewal requires the signature confirmation of a British citizen or a BNO holder who has known the applicant for more than two years. This confirmation is otherwise known as “countersignature” (副簽). The 28-year-old Andy Yu Tak Po (余德寶) is a Civic Party District Councillor and a BNO-holder. Since April 2020, he had helped nearly 400 people for a BNO countersignature. Among those he helped were his former middle-school teachers and university classmates.
The last time Chen Ka Yee had felt such a surge of emigration was in the 1990s. In 1995, on the eve of the handover, she was studying at a private primary school at the age of 11 when her classmates were leaving one by one. “There were around 40 students in the class and around a quarter of them had to leave.” The stream of farewell parties was continuous, “We were sending someone away every other week.”
When it comes to emigration, children are always the last in the family to be informed, so bidding farewells are often done in a rush. Chen Ka Yee had two close friends who had to leave suddenly. The three girls had promised to write each other letters and stay in touch no matter where everyone ends up in the future. “I bought very pretty envelopes and letters as I looked forward to opening my mailbox every day.” In the beginning, each of them wrote one to two letters each month. Later, as everyone went to middle school, the letters came once every two to three months. Gradually, they lost contact with each other.
In the 80s, China and the UK began their negotiations on the future of Hong Kong. No one knew what would happen when “British Hong Kong” became “the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.” A sense of insecurity and fear surged in Hong Kong, leading many to emigrate for self-protection and in the hopes of enacting pressure on the British government.
On the one hand, the British government can keep telling Hongkongers that they will continue to issue documents and passports; on the other, the Chinese government can also declare that they will not compromise with the dual citizenship scheme because the BNO is only a travel document.
-Scholar Chi-Kwan Mark explaining the birth of the BNO
Emily Lau Wai-hing (劉慧卿), the chairman of the International Affairs of the Democratic Party, recalled that on December 19, 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (戴卓爾) and the Premier of the People’s Republic of China Zhao Zi Yang (趙紫陽) signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Beijing. They then immediately visited Hong Kong and met with the Governor of Hong Kong and the representatives of the two bureaus before holding a press conference in the Legislative Council. Emily Lau was working as a reporter for the East Economic Review during that time and she asked Margaret Thatcher about the interests of Hong Kong people and the right to abode after the transfer of sovereignty: “Prime Minister, on Wednesday, you signed an agreement with China promising to deliver over 5 million people into the hands of a communist dictatorship. Is that morally defensible, or is it really true that in international politics the highest form of morality is one's own national interest?” Margaret Thatcher answered: Britain has done its best for Hong Kong.
The ‘best’ that the UK had done for Hong Kong manifested in the form of a BNO passport, in the following year after the British announcement of the Hong Kong Act 1985 (1985年香港法令). However, this passport was in many ways only a travel document: the right to stay in the UK for 6 months without a visa. The holder did not have the right to British permanent residence, government subsidies and the status could not be passed onto future generations.
“On the one hand, the British government can keep telling Hongkongers that they will continue to issue documents and passports; on the other, the Chinese government can also declare that they will not compromise with the dual citizenship scheme because the BNO is only a travel document,” remarked Chi-Kwan Mark (麥志坤), a senior lecturer of International History at the University of London. For the past years, he has been researching Sino-British relations during the Cold War period. He explained that during the Sino-British negotiations, the Chinese government had firmly stated that it would not recognize the status of the post-1997 British Overseas Territories citizenship and dual citizenship. At the same time, Britain was also subjected to the pressure of Hong Kong’s public opinions and needed to maintain certain ties with Hong Kong after 1997.
According to Chi-Kwan Mark, the British had largely considered preventing large numbers of former colonial citizens from settling in the UK. As early as the 1960s and 1970s, the UK had started to tighten its immigration policies of the colonies. “To a certain extent, anti-immigration sentiments and anti-Chinese racism existed at that time. The general concerns were that Hongkongers had very little connections with the UK so there was no reason to provide immigration rights to the 3 million British Hongkongers.”
Andy Yu Tak Po, Civic Party District Councillor. (Photography: Lam Chun Tung/ Initium Media)
In neighboring Macau, the same issue surrounding citizenship also existed. In comparison, the former colonial Portuguese state provided the people of Macau greater benefits: Anyone who was born in Macau before November 10, 1981 is eligible for Portuguese citizenship and such passports can be passed on to their descendants. According to a declassified secret document, the British government had exerted pressure on Portugal in 1985 to not grant the right of abode to Macau residents, in order to prevent Hongkongers from “learning the same tactic.”
Nevertheless, this special British passport is still a form of reassurance for many families.
In 1996, Lei Si Weng was barely 4 years old when her parents brought her and her two brothers to the Wan Chai Immigration Tower to queue up for BNO application. They were a fisherman’s family, living with limited financial resources. Although they have lived by the sea for many years and never really thought about leaving Hong Kong, Lei’s father recalled, “So many people applied during that time. We just followed the suit.”
According to information from the UK Visa and Immigration Agency, during the BNO application period from July 1, 1987 to June 30, 1997, about 3.4 million Hongkongers registered to apply for this passport, accounting for more than half of Hong Kong’s population of around 6.49 million people. If the applicant was not born in Hong Kong, they must be naturalized as a British citizen before applying for the BNO. According to the report from Apple Daily, on the day of the deadline for applying for naturalization as a British citizen on March 20, 1996, as many as 54,000 Hongkongers queued up overnight to complete the administrative procedures. The queue extended around 600 meters from the Wan Chai Immigration Tower to the indoors of the Wan Chai Sports Centre. There was even a fight that broke out due to queuing issues—an occasion that became a classic scene in the last year of the Hong Kong-British period.
However, after the enactment of the “One Country, Two Systems” policy, the BNO passport had not garnered much attention for quite a while. During the past twenty years, Lei Si Weng ’s BNO passport had been kept in a green bag that contains other important documents such as the birth certificates of her family members, her siblings’ childhood health records, PIN card, ID photos, home return permit, and her parents’ marriage certificate. No entry or exit immigration stamp could be found on the 32 pages of her BNO passport. The brown leather case for the passport had not been removed since 1996.
Each time she opened the green bag in the drawer, she could sense a mild moldy smell from the inside of the passport: “This is like reopening a time passed.” The information page of her passport showed her barely 4-year old face.
Recently, Lei Si Weng discovered that her father’s BNO passport could not be found in the green document bag.
“Oh, that was useless, so I threw it away,” her father answered.
THE ESCAPE DOOR
When news about the National People’s Congress’ enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law (港區國安法) was released, Chen Ka Yee and her family decided to expedite their departure from Hong Kong.
It was the afternoon of May 21, 2020, the weather of Hong Kong was stormy while Beijing was experiencing hail falling and the sky was pitch black at 4 pm. Standing at the turning point of history, Chen Ka Yee felt a heavy heart. Having lived in a conflicting society for more than a year, she felt that every once in a while shocks that had never been experienced in the past would surface. “It’s uncomfortable as if something is pressing on you,” she said. “I feel so powerless after being angry. Especially because we have all tried our best to make things work.”
Chen Ka Yee and her husband are both urban white-collar workers. During their working times, a care worker takes care of her 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son as well as prepares meals for the family. During the anti-ELAB protests, together with her husband and friends, Chen Ka Yee would participate in various parades and rallies, but “not at the frontline.” If it was just her and her husband, she would definitely “struggle with this political regime to the very last minute.”
But everyone has a baseline of tolerance in their hearts. For her, it is her children.
“Many legislators talked about how schools need to intensify student surveillance and teachers should receive patriotic education. It’s so obvious that it’s the kind of brainwashing practice that starts from kindergarten and the infant stage.” Since the anti-ELAB protests, many universities and schools have been closely watched by relevant departments. Some teachers have been reported for their personal comments. Since the National Security Law came into effect, the Education Bureau had issued a notice reminding all primary and secondary schools, special schools, and kindergartens to explain to students about the legislative background and significance of the National Security Law and the importance of national security. The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong had sent a letter to the supervisors and principals of the Catholic primary and secondary schools, urging them to educate students on the Hong Kong Security Law and the National Anthem Ordinance (國歌法). The Anglican Church, which has more than 100 schools, had announced the establishment of the ‘Ministry of Education’ to manage its schools.
This has really violated our red line. If you meddle with our education system, this is something we cannot accept.
-Chen Ka Yee
She felt that in the future, even if her children are enrolled in international schools, they will not able to avoid the increasingly repressive education system.
Chen Ka Yee and her husband are action-oriented people and quickly decided to leave as soon as they could. Taiwan was the first site they thought of—the fastest, the cheapest, and the best.
According to the law, Taiwanese investment immigration requires at least NT$6 million (approximately USD$21,700) to open a company or invest in a current Taiwanese company. At the beginning of June, through an immigration agency, Chen Ka Yee had already chosen an investment plan--to open a breakfast place located in Shilin, Taipei. “At first, I saw many well-known Hongkongers, such as Albert Leung (林夕) and Anthony Wong (黃秋生) , moving to Taiwan. I have also traveled to Taiwan before and thought that the environment is good.”
During the emigration wave before 1997, Chen Ka Yee’s parents did not intend to leave. At that time, the Hong Kong economy was prosperous and their jobs were stable. They were confident in the future of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and felt that China would become stronger in the future. They only applied for a BNO passport before 1997 because of a family trip to Japan.
Growing up, Chen Ka Yee had since felt different about the BNO. She had never applied for a Hong Kong SAR passport. In the past few years, when Chen Ka Yee traveled abroad with a group of friends, she used her BNO passport while her friends used the Hong Kong SAR one. When entering Europe, the airport staff would instruct Chen Ka Yee to line up for the queue catered for EU passports. All her friends would queue up on the other side. Every time she took out her BNO passport from her bag, her travel companions would almost always ask her in surprise: “Huh, you use the BNO?”
“Some people may say I romanticize the colonial times?” She explained with a smile, “But compared to the situation in Hong Kong nowadays, I’m better aligned with the colonial-era values of Hong Kong. The former system really stood as a system, but the current system can be subjected to change easily depending on different stakeholders.”
Facing the increasing ‘mainlandarization’ of Hong Kong’s governance system, Chen Ka Yee felt that having the BNO and not a SAR passport serves as a form of indirect protest. However, she had never thought that the BNO could one day give her the right to long-term settlement in the UK.
Emily Lau Wai-hing , the reporter who asked Margaret Thatcher a question concerning Hong Kong’s handover to an authoritarian regime, later became a member of the Hong Kong Democratic Party. For many years, she had been fighting to expand the rights of BNO holders in the UK. After she stepped down as a member of the Legislative Council in 2016, she served as the chairman of the Democratic Party’s International Affairs Committee. When she heard Dominic Raab ’s announcement of the change in BNO status, even she was taken by surprise.
“All my friends who were involved in the process of expanding BNO rights were shocked. Why would everyone think this way? Because most people have no expectation for the British government.” In the years that she spent lobbying for the British Parliament to expand the rights of BNO holders, the answer would always be: If Hongkongers are granted settlement rights in the UK, this would violate the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Emily Lau thought that the UK changed their policies at this point because the clauses of the Hong Kong National Security Law signaled that China had violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration first. “Since you violate the joint declaration, then I will do what I should do. Since I can’t get you to withdraw the National Security Law, I can only fulfill my responsibility to Hongkongers. The logic of the British stance probably works along these lines.”
Chi-Kwan Mark analyzed that the reason the Boris Johnson (約翰遜) administration changed the BNO policy could be attributed to Hong Kong’s anti-ELAB protests and the enactment of the National Security Law. In addition, the shift in international attitude towards China and the political pressure in the UK also forced the Johnson administration to respond. “A year ago, everyone felt that there were no issues interacting or making business dealings with China. However, the Johnson administration had faced huge pressure due to the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Sino-US conflicts. This is an undeniable geopolitical circumstance in the international realm.”
Just as Chen Ka Yee was preparing to fill in the relevant documents for the investment immigration to Taiwan, the news of BNO’s rights expansion was announced. Compared to the immigration route to the UK, the funds required for investment immigration to Taiwan is a disproportionate additional cost. Within a night of discussion, Chen Ka Yee and her husband decided to forgo the route to Taipei and opted for London.
Former Legislative Council member Emily Lau Wai-hing. (Photography: Chan Cheuk Fai / Initium Media
In contrast, Lei Si Weng is not the type to act in such a straightforward and decisive manner. Her elder brother, who is five years older than her, is more proactive. During the anti-ELAB protests, he had always exchanged Hong Kong dollars for U.S. dollars and often reminded his sister that it was time to renew the BNO. But Lei Si Weng, who was still a freelancer at the time, kept postponing her plans to do so.
“I had thought of renewing my BNO before since it may be useful. But because of its application costs and limited validity, and that I don't need it right away, I decided to postpone my application .”
Until one day in June 2020, she passed by the express company DHL store and saw thirty people lining up outside. Everyone was holding a transparent document bag, which contained identical documents. Upon closer inspection, Lei Si Weng found that the documents were used to renew the BNO and had to be sent to the UK.
“Upon seeing that, I was shocked and realized how serious the situation was. The passport is getting popular again. There was no immediate need for it in the past but it has become an urgent necessity now. After arriving home, Lei Si Weng immediately opened the green document bag and took out the BNO passport that had never been used for the past 23 years.
FATE AND LOYALTY
Hong Kong had faced subsequent waves of shocks in July and August 2020.
The Hong Kong Government declared that the slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times" (光復香港，時代革命) violated the National Security Law. The Education Bureau stated that "May Glory Be to Hong Kong" (願榮光歸香港) shall not be performed, sung or broadcasted on campuses. The Liaison Office of the Central Committee and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (中聯辦) criticized the democratic legislative primaries as rigged elections; 12 Democratic candidates for the Legislative Council were disqualified; the Hong Kong government announced that the Legislative Council election should be postponed for one year. Within a day, 10 people were arrested for various crimes under the National Security Law and the editorial office of the Apple Daily was searched. Since the National Security Law came into effect, 21 people had been arrested, including high-level media, former student activists, members of the public, and demonstrators holding slogans.
As news came one after another, Chen Ka Yee was busy calculating the rent in London, comparing the differences between British public schools and private schools, and researching if they could declare her and husband’s MPF to the immigration department before immigrating.
Neither she nor her husband has ever lived in the UK, nor do they have relatives there. She is a little worried about the current economic environment in the UK. “We are mentally prepared that after arriving there, the labor or work position will not be as good as now.” They have decided that the husband will continue to engage in finance-related work, “potentially having to work from entry-level positions.” For Chen Ka Yee, it will be working part-time jobs first and taking care of kids at home. Until the children attend primary schools and full-time classes, she will then find a full-time job.
Both children had already been informed of their parents’ decision. The 3-year-old brother is very fond of buses so he is happy just by looking at the photos of London buses. “The 6-year-old sister is more mature. She often said that she really likes Hong Kong and doesn't want to leave.” The adults could only tell their children the reasons for emigration. Having been shown what future life would look like in the British community, the sister was “a little looking forward to it.”
It was however difficult to communicate their decision to her mother. In May, when there was news that BNO holders might be granted more rights, Chen Ka Yee took the opportunity to raise the idea of emigration casually during a family dinner, “Let’s go to the UK?” Her mother evaded the topic. A few years ago, Chen Ka Yee’s father passed away.
“My mom is the kind of person with a very disciplined life. She has to see a Chinese doctor every Monday and receives acupuncture treatment on Tuesday. She thinks she can't do many things when she leaves Hong Kong. But if we all leave, mom will be left alone in Hong Kong.”
So far, her mother had not directly approved of Chen Ka Yee’s decision to emigrate to the UK. “My parents were born and raised in Hong Kong. They have a very stable life. They are ‘very Chinese.’” However, her husband’s parents encouraged them to leave. “My husband’s parents came to Hong Kong from the mainland in order to escape the Cultural Revolution. I think they understand political oppression better.”
Within Chen Ka Yee’s circle of friends, five or six families were talking about using the BNO to move to the UK, and two of them had decided to leave Hong Kong in January 2021. “When I first heard about the BNO, I was relieved and felt that our family can finally ‘reset,’” said Chen Ka Yee. “But when I started to look over the schools and everyday life in the UK, I was so unhappy. If we leave, there will be fewer people in Hong Kong who will come out to fight, and there will be fewer people who can challenge or protest against unreasonable situations. It’s a conflicting feeling.”
The significance of renewing the BNO lies in the future, but we act for the present.
-Lei Si Weng
Lei Si Weng also felt that what was unfolding in Hong Kong seemed to be reminiscent of what happened before 1997. Those who want to leave will emigrate while those who want to renew their BNO will continue to do so. For the time being, she had no plans for emigration. “If I had to choose, I would choose to leave after I secure the financial means.” But in any case, the right to choose in the future is premised on a continual renewal of the BNO.
“The significance of renewing the BNO lies in the future, but we act for the present,” she said. “It seems that Hong Kong people who applied for the BNO back then did not expect this passport to have new uses after more than 20 years. But it was only because they applied at that time that they have the opportunity to play this game at the next level.
August 17, 2020, Hong Kong. (Photography: Lam Chun Tung/ Initium Media)
According to the British Passport Office’s response to Ming Pao, the number of Hong Kong people applying for renewal and the approval of such BNO applications in 2019 had exceeded 120,000, which was much higher than the approximately 17,000 renewed applications during the Umbrella movement in 2014.
China had quickly launched its countermeasures against the BNO’s expansion of rights.
The Chinese Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming (刘晓明), held a press conference on China-UK relations on July 30, 2020. He said that the Chinese government’s political policies on Hong Kong, as stated in the Sino-British Joint Statement, is an unilateral policy statement. “It is not a promise to the British and even less so an international obligation.” He criticized the UK for groundlessly accusing the Hong Kong National Security Law and for changing the BNO policy, which further suspends the extradition agreement with Hong Kong. It is a “crude interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs.” “Because the British violated their promise, we need to let them know that we will take action accordingly and not recognize the BNO as a legal travel document.” The Hong Kong government had also issued a statement opposing the British government to provide Hong Kong citizens with BNO status the right of abode in the UK and the path to citizen naturalization.
Chen Ka Yee wasn’t taking the opinions of all parties on the news seriously. “They can just say what they like. If I go to the UK and they really deprive me of my Chinese nationality or my right of abode in Hong Kong, and strip away my Hong Kong identity on paper, then take it. But what they can’t change is my identification as a Hongkonger.”
As a city, there seems to be a deadline in Hong Kong, time is counting down. I hope I’m just overthinking. No, everything is fine...
-Chen Ka Yee
Recently, Chen Ka Yee felt that the sad part of being a Hongkonger is the need to always reserve an escape route for herself and her family. That lies the contradiction in the destiny of Hongkongers: on the one hand, they have a deep sense of identification with this city, but on the other, they have to always reserve an escape route for themselves “just in case something happens, we can leave in time.”
“It’s so embarrassing to think about it,” she said, and “who is leaving or staying” had become a popular conversation among her friends. “Now, in my thirties, I am facing the same feelings I had during my primary school years. This time I even have my own family and it’s time for me to leave.”
As she was about to leave the city where she had lived for more than thirty years, Chen Ka Yee experienced a deep sense of unwillingness and attachment. As a city, there seems to be a deadline in Hong Kong, time is counting down. “I hope I’m just overthinking. No, everything is fine, Hong Kong will not end up in a terrible state,” she muttered to herself. What if the future changes really lead to a final step? “Leaving Hong Kong like this in my thirties, I feel like I’m betraying it (Hong Kong).”
(To respect the privacy of the interviewees, both Chen Ka Yee and Lei Si Weng are pseudonyms.)
