Australia set to offer safe haven visas to Hong Kong
Australia is set to offer safe haven visas to Hong Kong residents as the Chinese territory is consumed by another wave of protests and arrests over new national security laws imposed by Beijing.
The move would make Australia the second of the Five Eyes partners to offer Hong Kong residents refuge after United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said he would would open the country's borders to more than three million Hong Kongers if they wanted to leave the former British colony.
Hong Kong police arrested more than 300 people on Wednesday after the new national security laws came into force, criminalising acts that undermine the Chinese state with life imprisonment in the historically liberal city.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he will offer safe haven visas to people from Hong Kong.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Hong Kong police warned people chanting the Hong Kong independence slogan may have breached the new laws on Wednesday and arrested up to 10 protesters for other violations. Among those arrested were two people for holding independence signs, including one with British and American flags on them.
The Chinese government maintains the new laws are necessary to restore law and order after more than 15 months of protest over Beijing's influence in the territory.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday the developments were very concerning and Australia's position was consistent with other like-minded countries, including the UK, the US and Canada.
Morrison said he was "very actively" considering proposals to provide support to Hong Kong residents worried about their future in the global financial hub.
"There are proposals that I asked to be brought forward several weeks ago and the final touches will be put on those and they'll soon be considered by Cabinet to provide similar opportunities," he said.
"We think that's important and very consistent with who we are as a people and very consistent practically with the views that we have expressed."
Hong Kong is also home to the second largest group of Australian expatriates in the world, with more than 100,000 living in the semi-autonomous region.
The Departments of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister and Cabinet have been working on measures to respond Beijing's increasing control in Hong Kong since the new national security laws were proposed at Beijing's National People's Congress in May.
Mr Morrison's strong language indicates he is now inclined to back measures that would offer safe haven to some of Hong Kong's 7.4 million citizens. Pro-democracy leaders resigned on mass on Wednesday and disbanded their political parties, worried they will be persecuted by new national security agencies and judicial systems established in the territory.
The government has been wary of sticking its neck out on the issue up until now after repeated diplomatic stoushes with Beijing over the coronavirus crisis led to a series of trade spats over beef, barley, tourism and international students this year. Any move to offer refuge to Hong Kong residents is likely to once again inflame tensions, as Britain calls on its allies to follow its lead.
In London on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said the enactment and imposition of the national security law constituted a "clear and serious breach of the Sino-British joint declaration" signed after Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
"It violates Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and is in direct conflict with Hong Kong basic law," he said.
"We made it clear that if China continued down this path, we would introduce a new route for those with British national overseas status to enter the UK, granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK, and thereafter to apply for citizenship; and that is precisely what we will do now."
With Latika Bourke