China

Hong Kong residents fleeing by the thousands for Britain after Chinese visa crackdown

Published

3 years ago

January 31, 2021

Thousands of Hong Kong residents are fleeing the semi-autonomous city for Britain as the Chinese communist party begins to refuse certain passports and travel documents and fears of repercussions for supporting pro-democracy groups increases.

British government officials are expecting around 300,000 Hong Kong residents to seek extended residency rights over the next five years in the UK, Axios reported last night.

In an unusual move that is exacerbating tensions with Beijing, Britain has opened its doors to as many as five million residents of its former colony Hong Kong. https://t.co/LaqzPjRva2
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 31, 2021

The Chinese government announced Saturday that it would no longer accept Hong Kong residents’ British National Overseas documentation for identity or travel purposes.

Now, 7,000 have so far fled to Britain and Axios reports that many are saying it is over a fear of crackdowns on those who support pro-democracy demonstrations and movements.

Britain launches new visa for millions of Hongkongers fleeing China's crackdown https://t.co/vsTTf57TNG
— The Guardian (@guardian) January 31, 2021

The AP further reported that most do not plan to ever return to Hong Kong

Axios reported in July that when China moved to restrict BNO identification, Britain saw it as violating its 1997 agreement in which terms were agreed upon that China would leave Hong Kong as an independent political entity for 50 years after Britain returned the city.

Read the full report here.

You can follow Ben Wilson on Twitter @BenDavisWilson

China

Biden to lift sanctions on China in exchange for third promise to combat fentanyl

Published

3 weeks ago

November 15, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

Reportedly President Joe Biden is making deals with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help improve anti-drug trafficking measures. China is one of the top fentanyl producers and distributors, culminating in a pandemic of fentanyl overdoses and deaths in the United States.

The Biden administration will be lifting sanctions on a Chinese government ministry, in exchange for bolstering anti-drug trafficking measures, Bloomberg reported. “We’re hoping to see some progress on that issue this coming week,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday, according to the New York Post. “That could then open the door to further cooperation on other issues where we aren’t just managing things, but we’re actually delivering tangible results.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation noted that should a deal materialize, it will be at least the third time that China has promised to get tough on fentanyl. In 2016, China agreed to increase counter-narcotics operations, and Xi again agreed to launch a crackdown in 2018. Nonetheless, China and Mexico are “the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States,” according to a 2020 DEA intelligence report.

“China remains the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations environment, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.”

President Joe Biden and Xi are meeting for the first time in over a year during this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. Sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will crack down on Chinese companies manufacturing chemical precursors for fentanyl in exchange for the U.S. lifting sanctions on the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science, which the Commerce Department added to the Entity List in 2020 for “engaging in human rights violations and abuses” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.