U.K. offers citizenship to Hong Kong residents

About 3 million Hong Kong residents may move to the United Kingdom next year, the British government announced Wednesday. People from Hong Kong with a British National Overseas passport and their immediate family members can work and study in the U.K. starting January 2021. After five years, they can apply for settled status and then citizenship. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the country would “not duck our historic responsibility.” Hong Kong was a territory of the U.K. until 1997.

Why the change? The announcement is the latest reaction to Beijing’s new national security law, which cracks down on Hong Kong’s autonomy. The United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada have all condemned the move. President Donald Trump announced sanctions against China and signed an order last week that ended the territory’s special trade status, declaring “Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China.”

Dig deeper: Read June Cheng’s report about the changing trade relationship between the United States and Hong Kong.