Hong Kong, China:
A new visa scheme is providing millions of Hong Kongers a pathway to British citizenship as the city’s former colonial master opens its doors to these wanting to escape China’s crackdown.
Authorities responded to enormous and normally violent pro-democracy protests in 2019 with mass arrests and the imposition of a sweeping national safety law.
As Beijing attempts to snuff out dissent in the semi-autonomous city of 7.5 million, AFP met with some Hong Kongers who have currently left, or program to head to Britain in the coming months.
Spike in inquiries
Billy Wong, an immigration consultant, has fielded a torrent of calls in current months on one subject — moving to Britain.
“Many people want to leave,” the 44-year-old told AFP, saying the quantity of enquiries is “scary”.
Wong is also preparing to relocate, one thing he and his wife Eileen Yeung had been thinking about for a couple of years.
“Now we have this new law, we are being very careful about our speech and measure what we can write on Facebook,” stated Yeung, referring to the safety law.
“What I want most for my daughter is that she can be herself and think freely,” she added.
Daughter Tinyu, 10, has currently been admitted to a boarding college in Derby and is complete of inquiries about what the next chapter holds.
“What does immigration mean? Does it mean we have to move — like moving to another place in Hong Kong? What is UK like? Are the British polite? I asked myself a lot of questions,” she stated.
“Time to leave”
Three months soon after Gavin Mok, 42, and his wife Lydia moved to Britain, their possessions have ultimately caught up.
After the shipment wound its way from Hong Kong to their new dwelling in Exeter, in southwest England, Mok filmed the unloading for his YouTube subscribers.
He hopes his channel will encourage other Hong Kongers to make the similar move.
“I would like to share my experience, to let them know that it’s the time to leave,” Mok told AFP.
Mok went to college and university in Britain. For his daughters, aged 9 and 11, it is more of an adjustment.
But they remain in touch with buddies back dwelling by way of video contact and are hunting forward to British college as soon as the coronavirus pandemic is beneath handle.
“In some ways they already speak English more than Cantonese,” he laughed.
A former trader in Hong Kong’s profitable monetary sector, Mok knows he has small possibility of matching his old salary.
“I’m prepared to do any kind of low-paid, blue-collar work, like food and parcel deliveries,” he stated.
“I don’t miss Hong Kong because I gave up on Hong Kong as a place a long time ago. There’s nothing for me there,” he added.
“But I will never give up my identity as a Hong Konger.”
My son’s future
It was an assault on democracy protests by a gang of stick-wielding government supporters wielding sticks in June 2019 that convinced Winston Wong and Connie Chan, each 40.
“We literally decided like overnight. Okay, I think it’s better that we leave,” stated Chan, who is in a position to run her enterprise remotely because moving to Britain final year.
They have because settled in Chelmsford with their 9-year-old son.
“We were worried about our kid and his future,” stated Chan.
Moving in the middle of a pandemic hasn’t been plain sailing.
Wong left behind a nicely-paying job as a finance director and has however to discover work in Britain.
China has vowed to retaliate in some kind against Britain for its visa supply but Wong says he is unruffled.
“If the authorities made me choose, I won’t hesitate to give up my Hong Kong ID card,” he stated. “Because I don’t think my identity as a Hong Konger is defined by an ID.”
Cherished library
Ian, 40, is waiting to see how the coronavirus vaccination pans out in Britain prior to creating a move.
He had been preparing to retire in the UK and says he likes British culture, but political events prompted him to speed up these plans.
“Seeing that Hong Kong’s political situation is worsening, I decided to leave earlier,” he stated, asking to only use his very first name for security causes.
As an on the web entrepreneur, he can work anyplace — despite the fact that his companion will remain in Hong Kong for now.
“Hong Kong is not the city I used to know. In the past, young people could still climb the social ladder step by step, but now, you can really see the future is bleak for youngsters,” he told AFP.
“So why not leave when I’m still comparatively young and start a new life in the UK?”.
He has not began packing however.
While he plans to travel light, his collection of political books — on subjects like the Chinese cultural revolution and Hong Kong’s democracy movement — will certainly join him.
“I feel like we have a duty to keep some these books,” he stated.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)