Hong Kong’s most prominent activist yesterday said that he had no plans to leave in the wake of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s offer of citizenship to millions of the territory’s residents, saying that he would prefer that Britain impose harsh sanctions against China.
“I’ve no plan to leave, Hong Kong is my hometown,” Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) told Bloomberg Television in an interview, when asked whether he would seek asylum in the UK.
“We need to stand up and fight back,” Wong added.
Photo: AFP
Hong Kongers welcome Johnson’s offer of a path to citizenship for as many as 3 million residents who are eligible to hold British National Overseas (BNO) passports, Wong said, but added that the ideal situation would be for the UK to pressure China into abandoning the imposition of new national security legislation that could curb political dissent in the former British colony.
“The more important thing is, I call upon the UK government to impose necessary sanctions or restrictive measures in order to push forward the withdrawal of the bill,” Wong said.
“Providing assistance and a backup plan for Hong Kong is good, but all we know is that the best scenario and outcome will be for Beijing to stop the implementation of this controversial law,” he said.
The new legislation would bar subversion, sedition and secession in Hong Kong, which is meant to retain its freedoms for 50 years under the terms of the British handover.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened retaliation, including the stripping of the financial hub’s all-important special trading status.
Wong said that he does not have a BNO passport, which is available to people who registered before the reunification of Hong Kong with China in 1997.
The 23-year-old activist helped lead the 2014 “Umbrella movement” that sought meaningful elections in Hong Kong, and was the subject of a Netflix documentary.
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